Dreamin' Wild review – Walton Goggins and Casey Affleck star as rediscovered 70s rockers
Newcomer-fans of Walton Goggins, sharing gifs of his stunned expression in The White Lotus, might want a look at this interesting but flawed movie: a heartfelt but frustratingly ponderous true-life story from the music world in which Goggins stars with Casey Affleck. Donnie and Joe Emerson were two brothers from Washington State who self-recorded an album in their teen years in 1978 called Dreamin' Wild; it bombed, leaving crippling debts for their poor dad (played by Beau Bridges), who'd taken out bank loans to build them a log-cabin recording studio – but the record is then rediscovered 30 years later by vinyl hipster connoisseurs who can hardly believe the Emerson boys' untutored rock genius.
The film insightfully shows how this deferred fame is not all good news; it has come too late for them really to enjoy it and Donnie (Affleck) has grown into a prickly, demanding creative personality who has been working desperately hard on his music career in the intervening years. He doesn't know how to feel about being at last feted for a record he now thinks of as immature and outmoded and its belated celebration leaves no room for his wife and musical partner Nancy (Zooey Deschanel). Like many who finally get a break after decades of hard work, he reacts with strange indignation to the fact that he's had to do without success for so long. As for his brother Joe (Goggins), who was only the humble drummer while Donnie did all the composing and playing and arranging, and now just works on the family farm, the resurgence of interest in Dreamin' Wild simply re-awakens his inferiority complex.
Writer-director Bill Pohlad made the interesting Love & Mercy, about the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, and this has a similar before-and-after structure. The present day action is interspersed with scenes of the young Joe and Donnie, played by Jack Dylan Grazer and Noah Jupe. Yet however earnest and heartfelt, the film doesn't tell us nearly enough, or really anything, about Joe. He has real heartbreak in his life and seems on the point of explaining this to a New York Times reporter – but is interrupted at the crucial moment. It is a powerful moment, but for some reason the followup never arrives, perhaps lost in the edit, and Goggins doesn't have enough to get his teeth into. A shame.
Dreamin' Wild is on digital platforms from 14 April.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BreakingNews.ie
an hour ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Aimee Lou Wood and Walton Goggins on ‘ridiculous' feud rumours
The White Lotus co-stars Aimee Lou Wood and Walton Goggins have both denied rumours that either of them are in a feud as 'ridiculous'. There has been speculation that the two co-stars had drifted apart after being on the HBO show, which follows the lives of guests and staff at a luxury resort as dark secrets are revealed and tensions rise over the course of the holiday. Advertisement The third series sees the positive Chelsea, played by British actress Wood, 31, try to keep her mysterious older boyfriend, Rick, played by 53-year-old US actor Goggins, calm in Thailand. Walton Goggins. (Ian West/PA) Following the 2025 series, Goggins appeared to step away from his fellow co-stars, and unfollow Greater Manchester-born Wood on Instagram. They both addressed the swirling rumours during a joint interview for US publication Variety, which was published on Wednesday. Goggins said: 'There is no feud. I adore, I love this woman (Aimee) madly, and she is so important to me.' Advertisement He added that 'she's special', and explained he had not addressed the reports before as he did not want to talk about Wood when she was not there. 'I think it's such a comment on where we're at culturally. Why is everyone obsessing over Instagram? That is irrelevant. We don't give a shite about Instagram,' Wood said. Goggins said that when he finished The White Lotus he 'needed to just back away from everyone', as it is his 'process' when filming a project ends. 'It's all so ridiculous,' he said. Advertisement 'It's just a part of me just saying goodbye to this character so that now Aimee and I will be friends for f****** ever.' Wood previously criticised a Saturday Night Live sketch, with an cast member impersonating her with exaggerated prosthetic teeth, calling it 'mean and unfunny' on Instagram. She told Variety that it 'felt misogynistic. It felt like the punchline was a woman's appearance, which is just not funny. It's not cool'. Goggins shared the same sketch online and praised Jon Hamm for playing a version of his character, before deleting the Instagram post, ahead of hosting SNL> Advertisement He said he was 'gonna say it (something) to your face', and added: 'I don't use social media in any way, and I'm not a mean guy.' SNL apologised for the April sketch, according to Wood, and the comedian and cast member who impersonated her, Sarah Sherman, sent her flowers to apologise. Wood is also known for Netflix teen show Sex Education, BBC comedy Daddy Issues and the 2022 drama film Living with Bill Nighy. Goggins has been in Western series Justified, post-apocalyptic series Fallout, and drama Sons Of Anarchy. Advertisement He has had two Emmy nods, while Wood has won a TV Bafta for Sex Education and been given a Rising Star Bafta nomination.
The Sun
6 hours ago
- The Sun
I wed a Nigerian toyboy 43 years my junior – people think I'm ‘crazy', call me his ‘grandma' & say he's with me for cash
A 68-YEAR-OLD woman has revealed that she said 'I Do' with her Nigerian toyboy, who is 43 years her junior. When Kay, 68, and Ablack, 25, first connected on Facebook, they had no idea that a simple social media like would lead to marriage. 4 4 4 4 But now, the couple have opened up on their unique relationship and explained how just three days after meeting in real life, Kay's toyboy popped the question. Revealing all to Truly, on an episode of Love Don't Judge, the couple admitted that they are constantly stared at in the street and Kay has even been accused of being Ablack's ' grandma '. Opening up about how their relationship first blossomed, Kay recognised: "He liked something I posted. He went from somebody who liked my post to my very best friend, I could tell him everything. It just kept getting stronger and stronger." After three failed marriages, Kay was initially 'very leery about being scammed ' by the youngster. Not only was the mother called 'crazy' by many, but before long, the couple had tied the knot, with Ablack being Kay's fourth husband. Despite falling in love, the couple constantly face judgement over their age gap, with Kay being 43 years older than Ablack. But Kay beamed: 'I do not feel old when I'm around him. I feel very young, like a teenager.' With Ablack based in Nigeria and Kay over in the US, the pair have had to make the relationship work with the geographical distance. However, Ablack knows that the pair are destined to be, as he acknowledged: "A prophet told me that I'm going to get married to a white woman and here she is.' But although destiny brought them together, not everyone agrees with their relationship, as Ablack said, "Some people say, 'she's old enough to be your mum '. Some say, 'you're married to your grandma', 'she's too old for you'. I'm 20 and my man is 63 - people say he looks like Shrek and I must be in it for the money, but I'd still love him if he was a cleaner 'Anywhere we go, people take pictures of us.' Not only this, but people have even accused Ablack of getting 'married for a US green card '. Clearly unfazed by the judgement, Kay, who is often referred to as Ablack's 'sugar mummy', said: "I've never felt love like this before. "This is the one I'm supposed to be with, I just had to wait a long time for him to be born. 'He treats me like a Queen. I'm his priority.' A-list age gap relationships that have stood the test of time Kris Jenner & Corey Gamble - 25 years The Kardashian matriarch, 69, met her younger man, 44, at a mutual friend's 40th birthday party in Ibiza. They've been together since August 2014. Sam & Aaron Taylor-Johnson - 23 years The director, 57, and actor, 34, reportedly met at a film audition in 2009, and were married by 2012. The pair share two daughters and Sam has two children from a previous marriage. Rosie-Huntington-Whiteley & Jason Statham - 20 years The model, 37, started dating actor Jason, 57, in 2010. They were wed in 2016 and have since welcomed a son and a daughter together. Catherine Zeta-Jones & Michael Douglas - 25 years Catherine, 55, was introduced to Michael, 80, a film festival in 1996 and engaged three years later. Shortly after their engagement, the couple welcomed a son and married in 2000. Social media users react Social media users were left stunned by the couple's age gap relationship - and nasty trolls were out in full force in the comments on the YouTube clip. One person said: 'As a middle aged woman who's probably close to her age, this makes me uncomfortable.' Another added: 'The prophet"s name is Visa.' A third warned: 'Be careful girl. Scammers can be 'in love' too!' At the same time, someone else wrote: 'Hope she has a lot of money to feed his whole family, why else would a 25 year old be with a woman in her 60s.'
Telegraph
11 hours ago
- Telegraph
Given all we know, it's hard to see Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in love again
This week I watched two programmes, one which revealed the inevitable end of a marriage and another that captured the magical beginning. One of them was all talk of love and confidence in a happy future; the other full of sarcasm and filth. But I wonder if you're able to guess which way round? Now I've asked the question, you certainly should be. The first was The Greatest Love Story Never Told (Amazon Prime), a documentary made by Jennifer Lopez about her romantic reunion with Ben Affleck. Or at least... Well, I'll start further back, in case you haven't been following this story over the decades. Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck had a love affair from 2002 to 2004, becoming engaged and making a couple of awful films together, before mysteriously calling off the wedding at the last minute. J-Lo went on to marry the singer Marc Anthony (actually her third husband, as she'd married two other chaps before she met Ben Affleck) and had twins, while Ben Affleck married the actress Jennifer Garner and had three children, but both of those marriages hit the rocks, and in 2021 our heroes got back together, marrying in July 2022, two decades after their original betrothal. Romantic!!!!!!! In 2024, Jennifer Lopez released her ninth studio album This Is Me... Now, all about their rekindled partnership 'with themes of love and self-healing'. She simultaneously released This Is Me... Now: A Love Story, a feature-length music and dance video as a companion piece to the album. And she also released The Greatest Love Story Never Told, a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the making of This Is Me... Now: A Love Story. It's a complicated triptych, isn't it? One has to salute the ambition of the punctuation marks alone. Anyway, I have been intending to watch The Greatest Love Story Never Told for ages. I love Ben and J-Lo! Unfortunately, it took me so long to get round to it, they're now divorced. One really does have to move fast with these people. It's a pretty difficult watch, knowing they're not together any more. Nevertheless, I think it would actually have been more difficult if they still were. The more they kiss and murmur on camera, the more speeches she gives and receives about love, the more obviously they're heading for the rocks. One rumoured reason behind their original break-up was that Jennifer had a greater enthusiasm for media attention than the more secretive Ben. So how does it look the second time around? Well, as a wedding gift, we learn, he made her a special book of all the love letters they've ever exchanged (a touching gesture: the creation of something sacred and private amidst the blizzard of global publicity) and the documentary opens – it opens! – with him discovering that she's taken this book to the recording studio in order to draw on it for the album, with all her collaborators and bystanders looming over it and thumbing through. And remember, this documentary is intended by Jennifer as a happy glimpse of newlywed life! It seems crazy to let this much light in on something as intimate as marriage – even Meghan Markle uses a pretend kitchen. But Meghan Markle is playing shop, trying to copy what the Kardashians do in the genre of 'reality' and what film stars do with their focus on 'privacy', both at the same time. J-Lo isn't playing shop. Her entire soul compels her to share herself with the public, at the expense of every personal relationship in her life. Not to blame her unduly. Ben Affleck has a history of alcoholism, with many rehab stints and relapses under his belt; he doesn't look like a peach to marry either, and his previous wife seemed to have a pretty gruelling time. I don't really fault J-Lo's choices; her stardom is real. There is something glorious about her doomed attraction to the blistering light, something of Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland: always performance above contentment. (I'm trying to find a way to avoid using the words 'No man can fill her hole', but I seem to have failed.) The concluding lines of this film, over shots of Jennifer kissing and cuddling her new husband, are: 'When you take your last breath, you won't think about who did something wrong to you. You will think about those who loved you.' It's supposed to be a happy ending. Instead, we can't help projecting into a different, lonelier future, picturing that moment and those thoughts for Jennifer Lopez and being rather moved. Meanwhile, No Activity (BBC iPlayer) is the series where a different couple of performers first met: Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer, who went on to get married, co-write and co-star in the phenomenal Colin from Accounts. In this earlier series he plays an undercover cop on a stakeout, she's a colleague in the control room. No flowery speeches of love in this earthy, sweary, low-plot Australian sitcom; more like intense debates about which hand you'd use to masturbate if you were a Siamese twin. Perhaps that's not your cup of tea. But you're watching two hugely likable, hugely talented people click together, their mutual sense of humour visibly crackling into life, and you know they'll go on to create a great comedy series, a happy marriage and family. As he describes a date where he believes he's given her a magnificent climax due to his experience playing the clarinet, and she tells a friend that she'd just experienced a bout of diarrhoea and vomiting, I thought: this might be the most goddamn romantic thing I've ever seen.
