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 (042324)
Daisy Jones and The Six is an enjoyable, semi-fictional, ten episode Amazon
Prime musical drama series about a 70s
era rock band. The show is based on an extremely popular novel by Taylor Jenkins
Reid, and the film captures the freedom, messy relationships, insanity, and
addictions that often occur in typical rock stories. The series compares well
with the recent Hulu rock miniseries: Pistol, set in roughly that same era. That
show had a more interesting story and better music but this one has far better
acting. It also might depend on whether you prefer punk or soft stadium rock
(I’ll take punk.) The film is a narrative within a narrative and it starts and
ends with the band members reminiscing on events that took place twenty years
ago in front of a camera for a doc. The middle part is their story.
Although Daisy Jones is not totally based on a true story it was obviously
heavily
inspired by some events that happened to the real-life band: Fleetwood Mac,
specifically in their late seventies’ incarnation with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey
Buckingham. But the parallels between the real life and fictional band do not
begin until halfway through the series. Like the real-life band, as the
fictional group achieves their peak in fame, the two main couples’ relationships
are irrevocably damaged and some members end up betraying each other
romantically.
Although the band is very Fleetwood Mac-like in some ways, they are also quite
different in others. For one thing most of the actors in the film are better
looking than their real-life counterparts. In Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey
Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were married to each other, but here the Lindsey
like character is married to another woman. Also, the surrogate for Christine
McVie (who just passed away) has a one-sided relationship with a member while in
real life she and John McVie (the only original member left) were married. Both
real life couples separated in the mid-seventies. Although Stevie was the most
dominant front person, in the real Fleetwood Mac, Christine was as important as
Stevie. She wrote some of her band’s best songs and played keyboards but here
she just plays keyboards and sings backup. Also, in the real Fleetwood Mac I
would argue that Lindsey Buckingham was the most creative member and driving
force of the band while his equivalent character here just provides support for
the more brilliant Daisy.
The series starts slow and the first few episodes are unremarkable but as the
series builds it gets better as it goes along. At the start, four childhood
friends in Pittsburgh form a band. The members include two brothers, Billy (Sam
Clafin), and Graham (Will Harrison). They are joined by Karen Sirko (Suki
Waterhouse), who plays keyboards and a drummer who is not focused on much in the
story. Graham is smitten with Karen but she feels less strongly about
him. Although they end up having a quasi-secret affair because she wants to be
seen as an artist not a girlfriend. Billy gets his girlfriend, Camile Alvarez
(played by Camille Morrone) pregnant then they get married, but he jeopardizes
the relationship when he plunges headfirst into alcoholism. At one point when
he is on tour, she tries to surprise him in his trailer after a long separation
and she catches him in bed with two women at the same time. Eventually they do
reconcile.
The band’s manager Teddy Price (Tom Wright) introduces them to the talented but
mercurial, Daisy Jones who pens the band’s first hit. Daisy is phenomenally
gifted but very cynical about both romantic and musical partners. This might be
because some of her best songs were stolen by her ex-boyfriend and she did not
get proper credit.
Stevie Nicks who was the real life inspiration for Daisy (although there is some
Janis Joplin in her portrayal too) said in Rolling Stone that when she watched
the series, “it brought back memories that make me feel like a ghost watching
her life,” and she was very pleased with the portrayal. It’s not surprising that
Nicks liked the portrayal because the Daisy Jones is depicted very positively,
looking like some kind of nature goddess. She is extremely free spirited,
unpredictable, and strong willed, and half the cast is in love with her (both
male and female). Riley Keough’s charisma makes all this believable. The actress
also wears colorful clothes and flowing dresses that are highly reminiscent of
Stevie Nick’s signature 70s look.
Once Billy gets out of rehab for drinking, he reforms the band and with the
manager’s urging he asks Daisy Jones to join. But this causes a change in the
power structure of the band and Billy is threatened that a new front person gets
the attention that he used to get exclusively. But eventually they start to
mesh and she dramatically helps him improve his songwriting which had been
rather lackadaisical. The romantic tension and unrealized passion between them
fuel their song writing but his faithful wife ends up straying and starts
keeping company with his brother. Billy spending so much time with Daisy is
also dangerous because he is a dry alcoholic and Daisy often overindulge in both
drugs and alcohol.
Although the film is about a mainstream arena rock band it briefly depicts other
genres and trends in the late seventies rock industry. The film also follows a
parallel story line involving Daisy’s struggling best friend Simone Jackson who
moves away and becomes a star in her own right in the soul scene. Simone will do
anything for Daisy and it is clear she has a one-sided crush on her. In this
side story we get to see the funk music just as it began to morph into disco (in
real life Kool and the Gang and K.C and the Sunshine Band also bridged this
gap). As they get into the late 70s the film also begins to mention the new
wave and punk movements which were starting to gain attention. One of the band
members wants the six to play more like The Ramones. Also, Patti Smith’s
haunting “Dancing Barefoot” which is the theme song for the whole show (the song
is more interesting than any of Daisy and the Six’s songs.) I would love to see
a biopic of Patti someday.
Although the story is not radically new or distinctive the show is elevated by
several extremely convincing performances and the whole show is anchored by a
marvelous performance by Riley Keogh. She started out in the soft-core porn
vampire flick Kiss of the Damned (2012), but she later got better roles in finer
films like American Honey (2016),
The House
That Jack Built
(2018), Under the
Silver Lake (2018) and most recently, Sasquatch Summer (2024). She is one of the
reigning queens of Indy films, the new generation’s Christine Ricci or Cloe
Sevigny. Oh, I am sure that it did not hurt her career that she is also Elvis
Presley’s granddaughter.
Daisy Jones and the Six has been criticized by journalists because in some ways
Daisy fits some of the criteria for being a manic pixie dream girl. Manic pixie
dream girls (like the female protagonist played by Zooey Deschanel in 500 Days
of Summer) are eccentric female film characters who add spontaneity to the male
character’s lives and they only exist to further or deepen the male character’s
experiences and they have no destination or purpose apart from that. But I do
not think Daisy totally fits this tag because she ends up where she wants and
needs to be at the end, and it is in a good place.
Many of the musical numbers are enjoyable if not terribly distinctive. The lead
actress, Riley was heavily coached by vocal trainers for her role and the songs
were put together by producer, Blake Mills along with such well known musicians
as Phoebe Bridgers and Jackson Browne. All in all this tells a pretty standard story with the usual ups and downs and if it more
of it were truer, it could be a very good episode of MV’s Behind the Music.
While I would not call this mandatory viewing, it is a solid, enjoyable, and
lively effort that is worth checking out.
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