Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes:
A rising but troubled musician searches for the inspiration to record his next song, pushing himself deep into the void. A work of fiction that explores fame, addiction, the artistic process, and the music industry, Taurus is a soulful and universal cautionary tale.
Review:
The only way a musician/pop idol like Colson Baker aka Machine Gun Kelly co-writes, Taurus – a last days of a struggling musical genius trying to create a master piece drama- is so that his irl persona would look better than the fictional mess by comparison. It’s a form of absolution that all the great pops stars from Madonna, Prince, to Nick Cave have indulged in. Prince is the only one with any commercial and artistic success. The rest have just another mess to add to their messy lives. I guess, Baker should feel fortunate. Taurus went in and out of theaters to Hulu streaming barely noticed and slightly heralded.
The film is a plotless mess that flows emotionally and psychically from one random emotion and thought to another. It’s suppose to show the creation and angst a musician must go through just to write one good song. The song and the movie’s title is played over the end credits. It’s a moody, sad, ditty about the consequences of fame with a decent melody that’s exists in the soothingly average, the great in between of neither great nor bad.
Fame is something Baker knows really well but the director, Tim Sutton doesn’t. Sutton can’t displays this because he hasn’t experienced it. He doesn’t know how to show the downside of fame where the idol can be damned culturally for acknowledging and enjoying his renown. So, he delivers the standard version, the cliché, the Kurt Cobain myth.
In his life, Baker went through and managed to avoid this rapster tragedy. He pulled himself back from the brink and forged a new persona on his own terms. That side of him never sees the light of day in Taurus. It’s all destruction, nothing but the march towards it. Sutton hides these destructive tendencies behind Baker’s renowned long blonde locks. The sullenness and depression can only be partly seen. Baker is caught in the director’s vision, where his sullenness becomes a statement for some sort of undefined national trauma.
Baker’s fictional persona, Cole is powerless to control anything beyond his life other than his music. It’s his only means of communicating his essential identity. Sutton, with his numb style, allows this to be an affecting conduit for Cole’s closed circuit existence.
Cole’s tug of war between addiction and fame’s downside doesn’t allow him to see what is beyond the music. He can only see himself as an asshole, not a potentially loving and good father for his daughter, a less abusive boss, a better human being. He doesn’t see the unconditional love of his assistant and others, just his external rage. It’s his tragic flaw.
There is a lot of truth and nuance in Baker’s performance that seem authentic. They appeared crib from Baker’s existence. The warts and all honesty just gets diffused in side plots that have no real bearing, and fantasy segments that ineffectively try to explain Cole’s thoughts and emotions. Sutton only wants to fatten Cole up to have his public eat him alive.
Taurus gets a 3.0 out of 5 or a B. It’s streaming on Hulu.
Credits:
Directed by
Tim Sutton
Written by
- Tim Sutton
Produced by
- Rob Paris
- Jib Polhemus
- Mike Witherill
Starring
- Machine Gun Kelly
Cinematography
John Brawley
Edited by
Holle Singer
Production
companies
- Rivulet Films
- Source Management + Production
Distributed by
Release dates
- February 13, 2022(Berlin Film Festival)
- June 9, 2022(Tribeca Film Festival)
- November 18, 2022(United States)
Running time
Country
United States
Language
English
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