Welcome back to Left of The Dial, and to part 2 of “The Ordinary Duo” review! If you haven’t already, please check out the previous review of Green Day’s Revolution Radio for the necessary context to fully enjoy this review! This week, we’re straying a bit from our usual route of reviewing music to talk about the Lee Kirk directed indie film Ordinary World.
I’ve hit a bit of a milestone this week with 20 reviews, so it’s an unusual choice for me to choose to review a movie as opposed to a record to mark the occasion. However, this movie has music as a central theme, so it’s not totally out there in terms of what I discuss in this series. As I hinted at briefly in the last review, I chose to review Ordinary World because of its fascinating ties to Green Day and Revolution Radio. Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong stars as the protagonist of the film, Perry Miller, and contributed a handful of songs to its soundtrack. The film also focuses on similar themes that the record did, particularly themes of growing older and dealing with feelings of dissatisfaction with one’s own life.
Before we put on the movie, let’s establish some rules for how this review will play out. First and foremost, this will be a spoiler-free review, so you’ll be able to watch the movie on your own and not be spoiled on any critical plot elements. Second, I’ll focus on three elements to determine my final rating: the story, the characters/actors, and the music, plus some fun extras & easter eggs to make things interesting. So without further ado, let’s put the movie on! If you care to watch with me, the movie is available to stream on Netflix.
The opening introduces us to The Skunks (stylized as LES SKUNKS), a punk band fronted by Perry and his best friend Gary (played by Fred Armisen) as they perform “Devil’s Kind,” one of Armstrong’s penned tracks, to the opening credits. Something I like to note is that Armstrong performs all his songs live throughout the film. It’s a nice touch that adds some immersion, plus I appreciate any time I can listen to him sing. This part is shot in black and white, and it’s dated 1995, which puts it about 20 years prior to the current day the film is set in, around 2015.
The transition to current day is executed fairly cleverly. As the song ends, the crowd noise fades out and gets replaced by the sound of a garbage truck. Perry, in current day, wakes up to realize he forgot to bring out the trash and scrambles to reach the truck before it leaves (he fails). This sets up an excellent contrast between his past and current self. In the opening, Perry is the cool and admired frontman of a band, while current Perry is pathetic and incompetent. The opening is framed almost like a dream, which fits in line with Perry’s issues as a middle-aged father struggling to return to the happiness he had in his youth.
We then meet his daughter Salome (played by Madisyn Shipman) and his wife Karen (played by Selma Blair), who don’t appear to have much respect for him. Salome gets on his nerves by refusing to use a coaster for her drink (the nerve of that kid!), and Karen’s aggravation at her husband’s failure to bring out the trash (for the second week in a row too) implies that she has to pull the most weight out of anyone in the family. In a moment that absolutely kills me with secondhand embarrassment, Perry asks if she’s “up for a little quickie” as she’s clearly in a hurry to get ready for work. This won’t be the last time the writing takes a nosedive, so prepare yourself. This is also when we realize it’s Perry’s birthday, but Karen and Salome are completely oblivious to the fact. Their focus is instead on Salome’s talent show, which is that night, as well as Karen’s folks coming over. Clearly, somebody in the writing room had been watching 16 Candles. We also learn that the Millers have an infant son. His name is never revealed and he adds nothing to the plot, so sorry to those of you that saw the poster and thought he had some major role.
At the very least, there’s one thing that seems to bring Perry some happiness in his pathetic life: his music. He takes a moment to practice on the guitar before walking Salome to school, and his skills are still as sharp as a tack. He then has to pick up her guitar for the talent show, and in one of my favorite scenes, he talks with the store owner about the sort of things they get up to. The owner got to fly to Paris first-class with a 25-year old French girl he’s dating, has sex with her on the plane, and then gets to hang out with Paul McCartney over dinner with her and her family. Meanwhile, Perry reveals he spent his night watching House Hunters and then going to bed.
We’re then treated to a montage of Perry barely doing his job at the family hardware store, run by his younger brother Jake (played by Chris Messina). If you’re looking closely at the letter stickers in this scene, the top row is arranged to spell “TRE,” which is a nice reference to Armstrong’s band. Sick of Perry’s crap, Jake gives him some money and tells him to take a day off to celebrate his birthday and let off some steam. Get used to seeing The Drake hotel, because we’re going to be here for a while. The deskman Rupert is played by Kevin from The Office (Brian Baumgartner), and Perry runs into an old flame named Christy (played by Judy Greer) who’s in town for work. The pieces are falling into place for the ridiculous shenanigans that will happen later on.
Let’s take a quick break from the plot to talk about the acting, particularly from Armstrong. He’s fairly good considering he doesn’t have much experience in acting. He has his weak moments, mostly in his line delivery (cite the “little quickie” clip), but his strength lies in his visual acting. He’s quite expressive and he’s able to let his body language and facial expressions do the talking when his line delivery can’t. Luckily, the crew tailored the cinematography and editing to highlight this, as we’re treated to lots of little montages with little to no dialogue where Armstrong can chew the scenery. He’s even able to show some youthful playfulness in these scenes, like when he’s waiting for his friends to arrive at the suite he rented out for the day. As we listen to the multiple voicemails he records, we get to watch him roam around and explore the suite, dive onto one of the king-sized beds, and push a little toy car around on the table. These are the best scenes to watch because it’s so clear that even though he’s not great at it, Armstrong is genuinely enjoying playing this character and these are the parts where he’s allowed to be himself, to some extent.
Let’s get back to the meat of the film, just as we have a reunion of LES SKUNKS (save for one member that was too hungover to show, at least for now). It’s interesting to see how Perry’s personality clashes with his old bandmates’, particularly with Gary. They have little regard for Perry’s rules, and his uptightness causes some tension between them. They even bring a hooker to the party named Gypsy (played by Rebecca Naomi Jones, who played Whatsername in the Broadway show of American Idiot), whose performance is ruined because of Perry’s crap. Okay, I need to take a moment and reveal a hot-take: I have a passionate hatred for Fred Armisen, particularly because of his performance in this movie. I get that Gary’s supposed to be a wild punk rocker, but he crosses the line between punk-rock and asshole a few too many times to be enjoyable to watch. He’s not even likable in the way some antagonists are for their charisma and humor. He comes across as constantly kicking Perry while he’s down, which is just unpleasant to watch, and it forever soured me on Armisen himself.
Returning to the plot again, Perry needs to duck out of the party to let his in-laws into the house. Like Jake and his bandmates, they’re critical of how out of it Perry is, using Salome’s poor excuse of a playhouse as an example of his low-effort way of navigating life. Meanwhile, Gary and the crew decide to spice up the party and invite more people, while also ordering room service without Perry’s approval. By the time Perry is able to return, the party is out of control and he resorts to napping off his foul mood. This is when you’ll want to take your bathroom/snack break if you don’t feel like pausing.
When you return, there’s a nice scene between him and Christy where he finally confesses that he feels like he’s having a midlife crisis. Both Armstrong and Greer excel at showing the sexual tension between the two, and when Christy starts to get intimate, Perry gets out of the almost-affair by playing her “Ordinary World,” which you know from Revolution Radio. It’s a wonderful performance that’s unfortunately interrupted by Christy’s cell phone going off and then Gary calling them both back to the party.
I should probably stop there with the plot summary to avoid getting into spoiler territory, but the plot points that were brought to the table do get resolved in a fairly satisfying way. From here, I recommend sitting back and letting the rest of the film wash over you. In this next scene with the party, keep your eyes out for a man in a blue beanie who looks suspiciously like Billie Joe. That’s actually his oldest son, Joey, and his band SWMRS is in the crowd with him. Will I ever review their music on Left of The Dial? You’ll have to wait and find out. Until then, one of their songs “Figuring It Out” is listed in the credits, and it’s a great track if you’re looking for something pop-punk to listen to. And for all you fellow Ultra Q fans out there, don’t go worrying that Jakob got left out; he has a track listed in the credits as well called “King of The World,” which is one hell of a bop!
Since I built up the fact that Billie Joe wrote some songs for the soundtrack, let’s do a lightning round review of them. “Devil’s Kind” is some excellent punk material and is easily the best track he wrote for the movie. “Body Bag,” by contrast, is probably the worst, though it could be considered an acquired taste. “Ordinary World” is delightful and sweet, as you know from the Revolution Radio review. Finally, “Fever Blister” is never sung by Armstrong in the movie, which is a shame because it’s another great punk song. With the exception of “Ordinary World,” all three of these tracks were released under the pseudo-name The Longshot on most music streaming services.
So what are my final feelings on Ordinary World? It definitely has its low points, but it’s a competently made film with some great moments and a kick-ass soundtrack. The plot is well-structured and doesn’t leave any loose ends, though it could have used some more time in the oven when it came to some of the dialogue. Some lines just don’t hit right, and even though her age isn’t specifically stated in the film, Salome seems to talk more like an adult in some scenes than like a kid, and she’s coded to be in the 8-10 range. Most of the cast is made up of career actors, so there’s not much to be said about their performances. Meanwhile, Armstrong is surprisingly good in the leading role. He really shines with his visual acting and audibly when his emotions run high, but as I stated earlier, his line reads can sometimes miss. The lowest point for me would be the character of Gary, and just how insufferable and cruel he is to Perry. It seems he was supposed to be this figure of tough love, but his writing and direction left out the ‘love’ part, which left his resolution feeling hollow and unearned.
While it suffers from some obvious flaws and directing mishaps, I can forgive the film a little because it’s clear that the actors and the crew all had fun making the movie. I’ve expressed my love for unpolished projects with lots of heart before, particularly in my Violent Femmes review, and Ordinary World fits right in. It’s a film that I never really stopped thinking about since the day I first watched it back in 2016, and it’s one I should probably add back into my regular watchlist along with UHF and Baby Driver.
Rating: 7/10
Feature Photo by Becca Fauteux