I Used to be Famous
Netflix | ★★★✩✩

I know it’s unfair to deduct points because the film in your head doesn’t match up with the finished product, but as I Used To Be Famous points out, the entertainment industry isn’t exactly built upon fairness. What a fantastic title though!

When this was pitched to Netflix, the execs probably took the rest of the day off. Then I saw from the trailer that this was about an ex-boyband member and I was all in. That it’s also the work of a bunch of North London Jewish boys is just the icing on the cake.

What writer Zak Klein and writer/director Eddie Sternberg have done is identify a fascinating subject matter. Boy bands are as close to a product in human form as you get in the arts; worked to the bone for years, and if you’re one of the few groups that actually achieves fame and success, it means you have to work even harder.

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Leo Long

What we never see is the aftermath when the ride ends, when men in their twenties are spat out with few other life skills, no music residuals, and if they were lucky to have saved, just enough money to afford a house.

Vinnie D didn’t save, lives on a Peckham estate, and in an over-laboured nice touch, lugs around an ironing board to prop up his synthesiser because he can’t afford a new stand.

His desperation, frustration and somewhat self-aware naffness are aptly captured by another tribal alumni, Ed Skrein, of Game of Thrones/Deadpool fame.

He may have been inspired to source those emotions in the fact thatthose career peaks were a few years ago now, but Skrein has a commitment and emotional complexity that belie his chiseled features and Hollywood baddie posturing.

With a modest budget, but a director who doesn’t squander it, and musical directors who actually come up with a few catchy tunes, all the elements are in play then to create something special.

Which makes the finished film that much more frustrating, due to the story they chose to tell. Instead of providing any genuine insight into our culture’s obsession with fame, or a more nuanced take on how to find meaning in your life when the dream is over, the emotional crux here is the relationship that Vinnie builds with a young talented drummer Stevie who’s neurodiverse.

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Ed Skrein

Slightly weird age differences aside, the narrative develops in broad strokes, seen before across a thousand films.

Trope builds upon trope, obvious plot point lead to obvious plot point in a redemptive arc that’s so spot on the nose it leaves it bloody, and a cheesy feel good ending that, like eating too much sugar, makes you feel queasy. The only elements you can’t predict are the ones that ring patently false.

No one in the music business is going to be surprised at being told they need an online following, accessible open mics exist everywhere.

Plenty of fudges are made just to allow them to tell the story they want to tell, rather than serve anything resembling truth. It’s just a shame that story, is then so mediocre.