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It's 20164, and the US has long been turned into an authoritarian and
theocratic country led by the Czar where rock'n'roll and free thought are
banned. Mad scientist Creigh A. Tohr (voiced by Röckët Stähr) has
decided to fight the system though, which is why he clones Röcky Stähr
(again Röckët Stähr) from his own genes, a four-armed glam rocker who
can play the guitar and bass and sing at the same time. And Röcky
Stähr's music catches on almost immediately, much to the dismay of the
Czar and his cronies. Ronnie (Abby Ahmad) is a young woman who can't
stand the reactionary views of her parents anymore, which is why she runs
away, with no idea where to go. Eventually, she pretty much stumbles into
one of Röcky's concerts, catches his eye, and the two fall in love at
first sight, much to the dismay of Creigh A. Tohr, as he starts to lose
control over his own creation. This comes to a boiling point after they
have eloped to get married, and Creigh forces Robbie to leave Röcky for
his own sake - as he puts it. With once again nowhere to go, Ronnie's soon
arrested by the Czar's men and hypnotized to kill Röcky. In the
meantime, Röcky's career goes from strength to strength, but without
Ronnie his life feels empty. So it takes its while until he figures the
"individualism" Creigh is selling his fans through him and his
music is just a different kind of brainwashing from what the Czar does.
But Röcky goes on performing, good son that he is, always hoping Ronnie
will come back one day. And coming back she does, but hell-bent on doing
the Czar's bidding ... Now when it comes to storyline, this
movie takes more than a few inspirations from The Who's rock opera Tommy
from more than 50 years prior, something that's even reflected in some
the music (Death of a Rockstar is a musical with no
"spoken" dialogue), but that's really part of the movie's
concept, which in style, music and even plot is a throwback to 1970s rock
music, especially glam rock, with many of the finest performers of the era
at least getting a namedrop. Now this can of course be a recipe for
disaster, but it works here, as the film's a loving hommage rather than
parody or postmodernist commentary and really gets the era down, and the
music doesn't only sound authentic, it's also pretty cool. But first and
foremost, this film is above all else just really entertaining, and well
worth a watch. If this has gotten you at all interested, Death
of a Rockstar if currently available on Tubi and The Roku
Channel, as well as other digital platforms.
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