Danko Jones on the Judd Apatow Movie This Is 40: This Ain’t How the Music Business Is
Danko Jones went to see the Judd Apatow movie, This is 40. He came away with some opinions about how one of the main characters is portrayed in his role as a music industry person.
It’s a quaint, charming, coming-of-middle-age story that, aside from its weak patched-together plot resolutions, makes for a nice date flick.
The only problem is that in Paul Rudd’s “Pete” character, an ex-Sony Music employee turned indie label owner, I am asked to suspend an amount of disbelief equal to the amount of money that apparently flows so endlessly from his ex-Sony Music employee pockets when it comes to the movie’s depiction of the music business.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m completely able to suspend disbelief when watching movies and I’m fully aware they’re works of fiction. Hell, I sat through Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull trying to swallow the fact that the mighty Indiana spawned a kid that looked and acted like Shia Labeouf.
When they cast then-hot Meg Ryan romantically opposite never-hot Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally, I quietly pretended the coupling could happen in real life. But while watching Apatow’s depiction of an indie label owner I found myself missing punchlines to jokes and gags because I was unable to get past how inaccurately and impossibly Rudd’s character operated his “Unfiltered Records” indie record label.
