Mayor of the Sunset Strip

Aroview: A portrait of the unlikely yet legendary radio rock DJ Rodney Bingenheimer, whose star connections and influential broadcasts on Los Angeles KROQ-FM have seen him become a living fossil in the strata of West Coast celebrity.

An expert cultivator of high-level friendships with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols, Debbie Harry, Nirvana, David Bowie, Cher, Nancy Sinatra and Oasis, Bingenheimer has himself become something of an industry 'enabler' for up and coming acts. However, at heart this amiably geeky personage evokes a hollowness of identity not dissimilar to that of Andy Warhol. Beyond the bleached-blonde parade of guest interviews, dir. Hickenlooper (HEARTS OF DARKNESS) seeks for a grittier pathos in family life with perhaps less success. Bingenheimer remains chiefly of interest as a strangely charismatic and all-accomodating envoy to the stars.

NZ International Film Festival 2004

more matches…