'Air Guitar Nation'
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Director Alexandra Lipsitz makes something out of nothing, literally, in a well-crafted documentary about America's 2003 debut at the world championship for air guitar.
C-Diddy competes in the first world air-guitar championship in the documentary "Air Guitar Nation."Click photo for larger image.
'Air Guitar Nation'
Director: Alexandra Lipsitz.
Rating: R for some language and brief nudity.
What often begins as private mimicry of the rock 'n' roll gesticulations of heavy-metal heroes has grown into a public spectacle and big business. In true Olympian fashion, amateur competitors from around the world compete for the chance to represent their countries at an annual air-guitar playoff in Finland. "Air Guitar Nation" follows the backstage intrigue as dark horse competitor Bjorn Turoque chases his nemesis C-Diddy from New York to Los Angeles to Oulu, Finland, for a chance to wield the imaginary axe for the U.S.A.
Quirky eccentrics make great documentary film subjects, and Lipsitz has found some real winners. With stage names that match their alter egos -- Krye Tuff, Miss AAA, Cherry Vanilla, The Magnet -- the competitors are ordinary people with two things in common: a love for heavy metal music and enough narcissistic pluck to leap onto a public stage in spandex and prance like the song depended on it.
Lipsitz's air guitar aficionados consider iconic concert rock movements a performance art. Why bother taking expensive music lessons when they take their headbands, cowboy boots, leather belts, mascara, tats and spandex body suits seriously? Why master a Flying V when they've mastered the Flying Leap, the High Kick, the Windmill, Head Bang, Tongue Lap and Hang, Prowl, the Knee Slide and the Classic Rock 'n' Roll Grimace?
A casual glance at a few New York City air-guitar goofs is perhaps enough for a Jeanne Moos CNN feature, and that's included in the movie. But Lipsitz digs deeper into the backstage feud that erupts when Dan "Bjorn Turoque" Crane, who offstage plays a real guitar, loses the East Coast regional finals to David "C-Diddy" Jung, an actor whose Korean immigrant parents wanted him to be a doctor. Turoque follows Diddy to the United States finals in Los Angeles and on to Finland, where they are the first Americans to throw their imaginary hats in the invisible ring.
The tension is, well, imperceptible, but it's a fun film for metal heads and anyone who likes quirky characters.
Opens Friday at the Harris Theater, Downtown.
First Published April 18, 2007 5:57 pm
