A band tries to find its way out of the ‘Garage’

Directed by Alex Proyas, “Garage Days” tracks the ups, downs and sideline distractions of a rock ‘n’ roll band struggling in Sydney, Australia. When the movie opens lead singer, Freddy (Kick Gurry) is daydreaming that he’s crowd-surfing above the heads of thousands of adoring fans. Eager for fame, he longs for a chance to make it, though he doesn’t show much interest in playing. The film’s wall-to-wall soundtrack, a bouncy patchwork of covers and new music, shows that someone here has an ear for pop -- but that someone might not be Freddy.

As to be expected from the director of “The Crow” and “Dark City,” the film’s gleaming good looks afford their own pleasures. Proyas downsized his budget and ambitions for the modestly scaled “Garage Days,” but he’s still thinking like a guy who’s used to working with a very large paint box. In one shot, digitally rendered raindrops fall around a lovesick woman as languidly as the bullets fly in “The Matrix.” Later, in a scene impudently labeled “Fun With Drugs, Part 2” and inspired in part by Danny Boyle’s “Trainspotting,” some chemically induced hallucinations are brought to comic, persuasive life. (The moral of that particular scene: Never confuse Ecstasy and LSD, especially when you’ve invited your parents over for dinner to tap them for money.)

Like the movie itself, the fun-with-drugs interludes skew a little goofy, a little charming, and soon wear out their welcome. Watching characters stumble about in altered states rarely captures the imagination as vividly as most filmmakers seem to imagine. But the larger problem is that the film’s visuals don’t jibe with either the story or the subject. Overworked and polished to a high digital gloss, the images would make sense if this were about a rock band made in the studio, rather than born in a garage. However beautiful, the digital wizardry principally functions as a distraction from the undernourished screenplay (by Proyas, Dave Warner and Michael Udesky) and as a way to give the director, who built his reputation with special effects, something to do.

Grasping at the big time without audible talent and star-making oomph, Freddy and his bandmates (Pia Miranda, Chris Sadrinna and Brett Stiller, all appealing), flirt, quarrel, party and occasionally jam but without a spark of inner life, a reason for rock ‘n’ roll being. Their manager (Andy Anderson) is good for a laugh and the lead guitarist’s girlfriend (Maya Stange) serves up soap-opera dramatics, but none of it cuts deep or especially personal. Like real indie films, garage bands are by definition rough around the edges, but what separates the true believers from the poseurs is their passion, their commitment -- and not just how cool they look on screen or on stage. A mainstream endeavor tricked out as an indie, “Garage Days” gives us plenty to look at but no reason to care.

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‘Garage Days’

MPAA rating: R, for strong sexual content, drug use and language.

Times guidelines: Drug use, adult language and situations.

Kick Gurry...Freddy

Maya Stange...Kate

Pia Miranda...Tanya

Russell Dykstra...Bruno

Brett Stiller...Joe

Fox Searchlight Pictures presents in association with Australian Film Finance Corporation a Mystery Clock Production, released by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Director Alex Proyas. Writers Dave Warner, Alex Proyas, Michael Udesky. Story Alex Proyas, Dave Warner. Producers Topher Dow, Alex Proyas. Director of photography Simon Duggan. Production designer Michael Philips. Editor Richard Learoyd. Costume designer Jackline Sassine. Music David McCormack, Andrew Lancaster, Antony Partos, Casting Greg Apps. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

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