Lucky Them - 2013 - 6/10

Character study of aging music critic (Toni Collette) ordered to do article on vanished icon.*
Tracking the missing is just the device. The story is about standing in place, unable to move forward.
She still prowls small clubs, has one night stands with increasingly younger musicians. (Collette, 40, resembles 50.)
Worse, the music magazine she contributes to advises her that her readership is down. She is irrelevant.
The movie becomes a road film, and an old admirer offers assistance if he can film her journey.
Thomas Hayden Church steals every single scene as ultra rich, socially clueless companion.
Funny throughout, filled with tunes you might enjoy in clubs, but never actually give your money for.

The reclusive artist trope is an oft used one, but it is invariably a myth.
Most artists run out of things to say, grow old and out of step, or their option is not renewed.
They don’t vanish - they are merely discarded, then forgotten.
Stepping away while you are still potent and disappearing for decades is no small trick.
J. D. Salinger - Syd Barrett - Garbo - Bobbie Gentry - belong to a small group.