The first foray into film from Sopranos-creator David Chase premiered at the New York Film Festival recently, and the trailer was just released today. The writer-director has reteamed with Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini, for the coming-of-age drama Not Fade Away, which is set in New Jersey in the 1960s. A group of college kids, led by Doug (John Magaro), form a rock ‘n’ roll band; Gandolfini play’s Doug’s father. With the Rolling Stones’ “Parachute Woman” setting the teen-angst mood, the trailer revels in several bildungsroman clichés: the disapproving father, the tempting love interest, the tribulations that come with charting your own rebellious course, etc.
Sopranos-creator David Chase’s first foray into film, Not Fade Away, premiered at the New York Film Festival recently, and the trailer was just released today. The writer-director is reteaming with Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini, for the coming-of-age drama, which is set in New Jersey in the 1960s. A group of college kids, led by Doug (John Magaro), form their own rock ‘n’ roll band. Gandolfini play’s Doug’s father. With the Rolling Stones’ “Parachute Woman” humming along and setting the teen angst mood, the trailer revels in several bildungsroman clichés: the disapproving father, the tempting love interest, the tribulations that come with charting your own course, etc.
Of course, on the surface, The Sopranos might have looked like a tissue of clichés as well, so we’ll hold out hope for the moment—though Eric Kohn at IndieWire says the movie as a whole is just as formulaic as it appears. Chase’s film “seems more committed to covering a lot of ground than saying anything new,” he writes. On television, Chase had hours and hours to unfold the complexities of a story that might have seemed initially familiar. Can he accomplish a similar task here in just a couple hours?
We’ll find out in December: Not Fade Away comes out in limited release just before Christmas.
