"We're gonna start a band like The Beatles and them."
2012 semi-autobiographical film written and directed by David Chase, creator of The Sopranos. Chronicles the brief musical career of Douglas, a young Italian kid from New Jersey, and his garage band. Starring John Magaro as Douglas, James Gandolfini as his father Pasquale, Bella Heathcoate as Douglas' girlfriend Grace Dietz, and Jack Huston as abrasive bandmate Eugene Gaunt.
This film contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Pat frequently threatens to "tangle" with Douglas, and beats him at least once. Douglas's mother is also prone to hysterical outbursts, and threatens suicide in basically all of her scenes.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Douglas's sister Evelyn in the final scene.
- Butt-Monkey: Gene.
- Byronic Hero: Deconstructed with Gene Gaunt, who embodies many aspects of the Byronic Hero, and at one point tries to name the band "The Lord Byrons", but generally comes off as cocky and insufferable to humorous effect.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Grace's sister Joy, who drops a lot of acid and frequently wears a necklace of lemons.
- Freudian Trio: The three core members of the band - Douglas is the ego, Gene is the superego, and Wells is the id.
- Gainax Ending: The final scene of the film has Douglas hitchhiking and refusing a ride from a creepy girl with black and white facepaint, at which point his sister walks onscreen and addresses the audience, talking about rock music and nuclear weapons, then does a dance number to a Sex Pistols song.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Pat frequently mentions his psoriasis, which later turns out to be cancer.
- It's All About Me: Gene Gaunt.
- My Girl Is a Slut: Douglas has difficulty coming to terms with the fact that Grace gave a lot of blowjobs in high school.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Gene and Douglas.
- The '60s
- Slice of Life: Chronicles the rise and fall of a New Jersey garage band that never makes it big.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Gene Gaunt sees himself as the biggest rock star in Jersey, and has trouble acknowledging that Douglas is a better singer than him.
