'Banger Sisters' Left Opened-Ended From Relying on Genre to Tell Story

"The Banger Sisters"

If Jim Morrison -- the self-described Lizard King -- were to break on through from the other side, he'd find two patient groupies waiting in the wings of the multiplex.

"The Banger Sisters," Fox Searchlight Pictures' newest film by writer/director Bob Dolman, pairs Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon as formerly renowned L.A. rock scene groupies Suzette and Vinnie, respectively, who reunite after 20 years of estrangement.

Suzette is the oversexed, aging wild rose of the Whisky-a-Go Go who blows back into Vinnie's life like a patchouli-scented westerly Hollywood breeze and upsets her beige, Williams-Sonoma-decorated world.

Vinnie -- or "Lavinia," as she is now called -- has become an uptight working mother and seems less than interested in reliving her days as "a Banger sister," a nickname given to the pair by Frank Zappa for services rendered.

The resulting struggle is the story of two women with a shared past -- one is determined to preserve it while the other wants to forget it.

Despite her protests, Vinnie embraces Suzette's friendship again -- along with her rock 'n' roll spirit.

Watching the film, it's as if Hawn has taken on daughter Kate Hudson's role from Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous," and Sarandon returns to the not-so-innocent Janet Weiss role that she made famous in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."

Proof of the women's legendary reputation speaks for itself in a scene where the women look through their sacred "Rock Cock Collection," a metal box filled with Polaroids revealing various rock stars' manhoods -- or lack thereof.

While the film includes several interesting rock 'n' roll history lessons and insider information -- like the size of Robert Plant's "whammy bar" -- it lacks specific flashbacks into Suzette and Vinnie's adventures as the Banger Sisters.

It seems the film relies too much on what the audience should supposedly know about the groupie phenomenon from films like "Almost Famous" and VH1's "Behind The Music" series.

As a result, one can only imagine what wild adventures the girls must have had.

Unfortunately, the Hollywood machine kicks into full gear near the end as it beats the audience over the head with the moral message of the film: Be yourself and don't deny who you are.

Whether you're a groupie, a fan of rock stars or have a die-hard MILF fetish, "The Banger Sisters" is a film that will make you look twice at your elders. They just might hold the key -- or Polaroid -- to your favorite rock god's private past.

The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.