The Severed Cortex

Link: http://www.airguitarnation.com/new/

I like to pretend I'm a real music critic. I don't pretend for a moment that I know anything about film, except of course that Porky's Revenge may very well be the best movie ever made. I did want to point out Air Guitar Nation though. My good friend at work Nancy S. turned me on to this. She likes loud guitars and anything campy and she knows I do too. She thought I would find this hilariously funny ... and I did.
The documentary starts with the startling revelation that the World Air Guitar Championships have been held in Finland for years and the United States knew nothing about it. Quickly, the U.S. Air Guitar Championship is born so a representative from the United States could compete in the 2003 title match. While that on its own is quite a hilarious undertaking, the characters that drive the U.S. story make it another story on its own. The U.S. winner, C-Diddy, is clearly born to air guitar, but the relentless pursuits of one Bjorn Turoque make the story even better. Bjorn refuses to give up on his runner up status to C-Diddy and shows up at both the Los Angeles, and Oulu, Finland competitions.

While the story starts off as a silly endeavor to be as over the top as possible, the documentary turns to the seriousness that the rest of the world takes this competition to be, and of the reverence it is given by its past competitors. This more somber tone allows for the true meaning of the competition to shine through, which is if everyone is playing air guitar, no one could possibly fight a war. It's a silly concept, but silly as it may be, at least it would be a fun way to try to stop war. After watching this, there's no way you'll ever be able to look at 'guy in mullet at Metallica concert doing air guitar' the same way you do today. Not a fantastic movie, but certainly a fun one and I owe Nancy S. big props for loaning this to me. I mailed it back to Netflix for her.

As an aside:
Bjorn Turoque, whose real name is Dan Crane, plays Jean-Luc Retard in a faux French band called Nous Non Plus. Their lead singer bills herself as Celine Dijon.

To err is human. To air guitar, divine. -- Bjorne Turoque