All the cliches, tropes and tricks of the rock star biopic are trotted out for “Less of a Stranger,” a Polish prance down the primrose path of pop stardom.
“Less of a Stranger?” That phrase applies to this Polish production in almost every way as overfamiliarity dogs it for the better part of two hours.
But here’s the thing. This is about Lady Pank, a New Wave era Polish band who were Fight the Man role models for the likes of Pussy Riot and others resisting authoritarianism via punk poses and Hendrix-style guitar solos.
Our guitar hero/narrator is Jan Borysewicz, whose Wikipedia page doesn’t do him justice. The film follows him from his first act of childhood revolt — a tween turning the radio back up over his Dad’s objections and smashing dishes with his big brother when he hears Jimi Hendrix — to a climactic riot at a concert interrupted by Polish “militia” state police in 1983, and the state-enforced mental hospital committal that followed.
Borysewicz himself voice-over narrates the recent past and distant past episodes, and everything in between. And when adult actor Mikołaj Bukrewicz takes over for young Miroslaw Tomczuk, a lot of his lines are dubbed by Borysewicz as well.
That’s…a choice.
As we finally get around to the pre-ordained “rise-to-the-top” montage an hour into the film, with another quarter hour passing before the hedonistic, drug-fueled sex party that tells us Jan’s “too far gone,” the endless voice-over and voice looping business aren’t the picture’s biggest distractions.
The kid Jan gushes to his brother (Julian Gostymski), “I’m going to AMERICA (in Polish with English subtitles)! I’ll be FAMOUS!”
Both things will prove to be true, but not before his sibling buys him his first guitar, allowing boy-Jan to stop pretend-playing a cutting board, not before Jan’s first abortive music lessons, not before his bitter ex-musician father (Ireneusz Czop) has yanked the strings out of it forbidding him from joining his first band.
Complications? His mother’s (Kinga Preis) “tremors” turn out to be multiple sclerosis, a lifelong, life-shortening disaster that hangs over the family, even ever-on-the-road Jan.
An abortive “tour” of the Netherlands is what triggers Jan’s decision to drag his songwriting partner/manager (Patryk Pietrzak) off with him as he starts his own band. A one-night stand with fetching hairdresser Magda (Bernadetta Statkiezicz) leads to a baby.
“I don’t want a ROCK star,” she fumes. “One child in the house is enough!”
And The State? They’re taking notice of songs like “Less than Zero,” that become anthems on Poland, with that song making it on MTV in the U.S. Better not play it tonight, comrade. Can’t disturb the peace, you know.
Our rebel has already thrown LPs at American record company execs and tangled with uniformed militia on the streets. You think he won’t incite a riot? Think again, towarzysz.
If director Kristoffer Russ (“Into the Wind”) had approached the cliches of the story with a need to speed through them, this worthwhile tale might play. Then again, the performances are across-the-board superficial and the twangy ’80s tunes, even the edgy ones, have a “You had to be there. And be POLISH” to get much out of this.
“Less of a Stranger” never gets close enough to its subject to be intimate and that robs the film of its importance in Polish and European history. Without importance, this is just “Bohemian Rhapsody” with more colorless Bohemians.
Rating: TV-MA, violence, drug abuse, sex, nudity, profanity
Cast: Mikołaj Bukrewicz, Kinga Preis, Patryk Pietrzak, Ireneusz Czop, Mikołaj Matczak, Hubert Milkowski, Krzysztof Oleksyn, Bernadetta Statkiewicz and Marcel Barra.
Credits: Directed by Kristoffer Russ, scripted by Joanna Kozlowska and Wiktor Piatkowski. A Netflix release.
Running time: 2:03
