Mayor of the Sunset Strip
Director: George Hickenlooper
Year Released: 2003
Rating: 2.5
Portrait of L.A.'s own Rodney Bingenheimer, radio DJ and tastemaker, social butterfly and moody cipher, who helped launch the careers of countless mediocre-to-impressive acts and appeared in photos with some of the top celebrity names of the last century plus yet has no distinguishable identity of his own. Hickenlooper lets him off the hook, too - or is that Rodney evading Hickenlooper? - as questions like, "If you could do it all over again and be someone else, would you?" get dodged or answered in cryptic neo-Warholian language (it's no surprise Rodney on the Roq knew Andy, too). The first hour works for the most part, detailing aspects of his life and his friendship with people like Cher and Brooke Shields, but the last half hour struggles, choking on its multiple conflicts in order to show him as a tragic figure: how Rodney's 'girlfriend' actually has another boyfriend, how Rodney's best friend leeched off him and 'stole' his radio show, how Rodney poured his mother's ashes off the coast of England.
