[LAST DAYS HERE
is now available on home video.]
Review
by Bob Ignizio
There is no shortage of talented
artists whose lives have been cut short by drugs. As tragic as these
individuals are, our culture has a tendency to romanticize them. To
quote an old adage, they lived fast, died young, and left good
looking corpses. Less easy to glamorize are the walking wounded,
people like Pentagram vocalist Bobby Liebling. When we first meet the
fifty-something Liebling in the fascinating documentary LAST DAYS
HERE, he's smoking crack in his
parent's sub-basement while recalling past glories. All one can feel
for the man is a mixture of pity and horror. As we learn more about
his state, it seems impossible that he's even alive.
Not
many people know who Pentagram are/were, but in the seventies they
were a promising hard rock band that seemed destined for big things.
It's often said that opportunity only knocks once, but in Pentagram's
case it knocked at least twice: First when Gene Simmons and Paul
Stanley came over to scout the band, and later when noted producer
Murray Krugman (Blue Oyster Cult) tried to record a demo with them.
Both times the band managed to screw things up royally. Before long
Pentagram broke up, though not before leaving behind a handful of
demo and rehearsal tapes that would eventually grab the attention of
hardcore heavy rock aficionados.
One
of those aficionados is Sean Pelletier, a Pentagram fan who winds up
acting as Bobby's manager and appears to be his only real friend at
the time directors Don Argott and Demian Fenton began shooting. His
efforts to get his idol back into the world of the living and the
effects that has on his personal life become a major part of the
story the film tells. We also see a good bit of Bobby's parents, who
some accuse of being enablers for letting their drug addict son
continue to live at home, and we hear candid comments from former
band members who respect Bobby's talent but could never bring
themselves to work with him again.
Some
might be disappointed that there isn't more focus on the music of
Pentagram in LAST DAYS HERE;
there's probably enough to give the unitiated some idea what the band
sounds like, but not enough to really put into context what all the
fuss is about. That's not really what this movie is about, though.
It's a story of survival and redemption, and what directors Don
Argott and Demian Fenton capture here is truly remarkable. Over the
course of their film, we see Bobby change slowly and painfully, and
not without setbacks. While it would seem impossible based on the man
we first meet in this film, it starts to look as if not only might
Liebling clean himself up, opportunity might knock a third time, and
there might even be the prospect of love and family. 4 out of 4
stars.
Cleveland
fun fact: Pentagram's current drummer as of this writing is Sean
Saley, who played is several Cleveland area punk bands in the
eighties including The Guns and Starvation Army.
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