One of the best documentaries I have seen lately is "Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey." It is the true story of how the very famous band "Journey" found an improbable replacement lead vocalist in Manilla. This is the story of Filipino, Arnel Pineda who grew up in poverty in Manilla, all the while striving to be a successful lead singer. Meanwhile, Journey had parted ways with Steve Perry, their uniquely talented lead singer, and gone through a hiatus and several personnel changes. Journey founder and guitarist, Neal Schon, found some Internet video of Arnel Pineda singing Journey covers and was knocked out. They flew Arnel over to audition and the rest is history. This movie will make you smile and feel good all over, but it is also very fascinating, especially the auditions and first live performance segments. I loved it, and Arnel is such a joyous, irresistible dude.
The story was previously fictionalized in one of my "guilty pleasure" movies, "Rock Star," (2001), which I highly recommend. Mark Whalbery plays a lead singer in a tribute band covering a famous band, Steel Dragon. Dragon loses their lead singer and Whalberg's character eventually gets the gig, same as Arnel and Journey. However, in "Rock Star" the fame brings Whalberg down (drugs, ego, and the like), whereas with Arnel the opposite happens. Anyway, I highly recommend "Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey." It's currently streaming on Netflix.
1 comment:
I'll definitely check it out, thanks for hipping us to it.
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