For decades, rock ‘n’ rollers have been characterized as hard drinking, snorting, and/or shooting stars whose desire to self-medicate was driven by a hunger to reach the heights of creative nirvana. Drugs were offered as the crutch essential to prolonging their genius. Now, there’s a new medicament in town: antidepressants. And the last thing a paranoid schizophrenic record producer like Theo (Simon Pegg) needed was to go off his meds in search of creative clarity. Though from our first glimpse of him, it’s impossible to discern Theo’s fragile mental state. The life of the party seated behind the piano doesn’t appear to be the type to be fluent in FM static. (Radio transmissions speak directly to Theo, keeping him apprised of the whereabouts of the princess with whom he longs to spend an eternity in happy ever after land.) With his 72-hour involuntary psychiatric hold about to expire — and no friends or family members willing to take him in — up steps protege Hannah (Juno Temple) with helping hand extended. The much younger songwriter was issued her first script for anxiety meds when she was 22, and for now, the daily regimen of pills appears to be having a positive effect. Will Hannah be the one to pluck Theo from the jaws of opioid addiction? What do you think? Good news: he never once tries to hit on her. And the lead performances are first-rate, particularly Pegg; he’s so good you’ll experience sympathy withdrawals. I was willing to go with it, but the eleventh-hour appearance of a professedly fanciful character made it difficult. Plus, it’s just all so damn depressing. (2019) — Scott Marks
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