Last Days Here (2011)

 Bobby Liebling is the lead singer of the heavy metal group Pentagram. Once upon a time Pentagram coulda woulda shoulda been one of the greatest metal bands of all time, but Liebling had a problem with drugs and ended up spending much of his time living in his parents living room.

Years later Liebling is tracked down by some fans who crazily think that if Bobby can get clean he could actually achieve some of the fame that was denied him so long ago.

Flawed but strangely compelling film is the story of Bobby being helped from the darkness by several people who still see a great deal in him. It's a film that weirdly seems to be saying if we all had a few friends around us we might achieve something...

...on the other hand it's not that easy. Bobby is not the easiest person to deal with.

When the film was making it's rounds before it's cinema release last spring word on the film was very high and it looked like it was going to be the next (insert title here). Then when the film was released to regular theaters the love kind of cooled down. Maybe it wasn't so great.... I hesitated in seeing it and it disappeared from theaters.

Sometime in the fall I caught up with it on VOD on cable. I was shocked that while the film wasn't the be all and end all, it wasn't the warmed over turkey that some reviews had made it out to be.  To be sure the film does follow the typical will he or won't he rise from the ashes formula of so many other films, but at the same time it has two things going for it, first it twists ans turns through some interesting side bits about metal music that opened my eyes to things, and secondly it has Bobby as the central figure. Say what you will, Bobby is a compelling character even if it frequently seems to be at the center of a bad road accident.

I really liked it. So much so that even though it's taken me about four months to write this piece I hung in there and wouldn't give up. I may not have been able to get the words together to tell you that you need to see this film. There is something about it that makes it worth seeing.