Mayor of the Sunset Strip (2003)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

THE MAYOR OF SUNSET STREET (dir.George Hickenlooper) provides a provocative and in depth analysis of Rodney Bingenheimer, one of the most influential pop-music media figures of the last 40 years, yet for all of his power and influence, the man seems lonely, adrift, and somewhat shattered. Hickenlooper overwhelmingly makes the case that Rodney was at the very epicenter of what was 'hip' for many decades. However, by the end of the film, one wonders how such close access to wealth, celebrity, and mass adulation would gain Rodney so very little. It is both sad and ironic that a man who's impeccable taste brought joy to millions of music fans would end up in such a melancholy situation. THE MAYOR OF SUNSET STREET is a strikingly original portrait of a rather doleful individual.

OK so I thought it showed the human side of Rodney that he had a gift, tho he had little confidence most his life you can tell that. He has perseverance. He defined what Cool was to be up on the Strip. This fella that was ridiculed and made fun of all his life really is someone i think should have respect and recognition at being in the forefront of what was cool in the best of musics era up on the strip. The movie portrayed him for who he was back then and who he is now. There are so many derogatory statements about the movie, I see the points made but I don't agree to many of them. He has had a odd life different then the mainstream. He has mingled with the stars which was his dream and he fulfilled it. The one thing he has not seem to fulfilled is his desire to be in a solid relationship. I think that is all that is missing for him. I mean this is a personal thing and he is a very private person but i know first hand that he has always sought that special person. He dated my sister for a period of time back in the 70s. He took her to the David Bowie concert at the Palladium (ziggy stardust tour if i remember right)in a limousine. She was of course underage like all the young girls back then in the scene. Unfortunately my sister was like a wild cat in a cage, and she left him too. But every time i saw him for many years after he would ask me How's Cindy, tell her to call me sometime. She was special to him there is no doubt in my mind. Myself I respected him and always said hello, my friend Kris and i would sit with him at Dennys many a night back in those days. He was a kind and gentle person. I had no idea about his personal growing up life and this enlightened me. I felt the movie had that tragedy feel and kind of somber because you want to know that he is OK. You want to know that he has built confidence over time but it seemed at the end, he still hadn't found that Happiness he has searched for. He reconciled with his mom after many years but how many people have done this to family members that were not deserving? many many He has had great compassion and a big heart to forgive such a cruel injustice. He has certainly had a terrible time with love interests but has experienced all the benefits regardless. But who can blame him for testing out the waters? Don't we all do that? perhaps on a smaller scale, given the circumstances that he was in that he placed himself in. Camille is and will no doubt remain someone dear to him. She has her own agenda, such is life. I truly hope that Rodney will find what he looks for he is a special person and if you got the chance to know him at any point you'd agree who could not like him he had a odd personality but you just didn't care he was Rodney "Whats happenin?" He should have made millions coining that phrase. Im glad he got a star on the walk of fame he deserved it. I am also glad i got to know him back in the day, in the 70s. I say Long live Rodney! Thanks Rodney for making those days more fun for us.

Alchemy tries to get something from another thing, magic tries to get something from nothing. These ideas stuck in my mind watching The Mayor Of Sunset Strip- a documentary about a cipher of a man named Rodney Bingenheimer, and his coterie of even less significant hangers-on. Rodney's a famed DJ at Los Angeles radio station KROQ, credited with discovering acts such as Blondie, No Doubt, and Coldplay. However, he seems a dinosaur in his field, reduced to just one two-three hour gig on early Sunday mornings.The film tries to convince us of Rodney's significance to rock music the last four decades. This significance rests upon his DJing, and Zeligian ability to brown-nose celebrities. He started off as a stand in for The Monkees' Davy Jones, wrote music articles, owned a hip LA disco, and then got his radio gig. After that, it seems life started eroding. Rodney's become rock's Andy Warhol, with the same fey, blank demeanor. The difference is those who knew Warhol knew it was all an act for the media. With Rodney Bingenheimer, what you see is what you don't get. Pushing 60, Rodney's life is a mess- he lives in a dingy apartment, laced with memorabilia from celebrities such as Brooke Shields, Cher, and many others, yet his life is pitiable. He's lonely, stuck on a woman at least twenty years his junior, who feels nothing but disdain for Rodney- a point hammered home in an especially cruel scene where Rodney and she, on a bed, talk of their feelings for each other. He would marry her in an instant, yet he's only a 'friend'. That a fiftysomething wilts into this junior high sort of puppy love speaks volumes for Rodney.Rodney's lone uniquity seems to be that his cipher makes him a fawning funhouse mirror to insecure celebrities- whose gravitation towards him is perfectly understandable. Yet, with all these pals, why is Rodney so poor off? Because his lone ambition is to be an acolyte, to hang out with celebrities. Yet, we know all this in five minutes. Was it really necessary to devote a whole film to this man? The film isn't bad, but its best reason for existence is as a true life Spinal Tap.The film's commentary track by Carter and Rodney adds nothing. Rodney rambles mealy-mouthed about who such and such celebrity is, while Carter seems awestruck by it all. The track by Hickenlooper at least gives some insight into the film- but not Rodney. Outtakes and extra interviews are standard. Towards the end of the film Rodney travels to England to dump his dead mother's ashes into the ocean and there's an almost pornographic revelry in Rodney's and the film's delight in showing how hurt, bereft, and clueless Rodney is. It's as if the ashes were his last connection to a flesh and blood reality disconnected to celebrity. By showing it, Rodney shows how desperate he is to be known just to be known. The problem is the scene is overkill. We know Rodney's pathetic. While the film is finely made there's nothing within. It can be claimed that the film was a perfect cinematic recapitulation of its subject, and the argument has merit. Yet, this is the rare work of art I view against the prism of what it could have been, not what it is. It's unfair, and hypocritical, but to not acknowledge that would be worse. If I didn't I'd be Rodney- poor, lonely, pathetic Rodney. My quease is its triumph- ah, magic!

As a co-star in this movie I am duty-bound to make a correction, namely, that RODNEY was NOT dropped off at Connie Stevens' house by his mother. This was a fabrication introduced by the director, and voiced by Kim Fowley.I agree with several people: the movie should be re-cut (it's possible, because the raw footage is still in storage) and the crap (the too- "dark" stuff) removed...and made much longer. So much was never seen...and this was supposed to be a pro-RODNEY movie (and not an anti-Kim Fowley picture). It could have been a GREAT documentary instead of just a GOOD one...Trivia: Originally, this movie was supposed to have been offered via Paramount Pictures. What would have happened IF it had, one wonders?