If you are not yet familiar with the movie Adventures of Power, I had first mentioned it way back in February of 2008. The film - written by, directed by and starring Ari Gold - first premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and has been making the film festival rounds ever since to rave reviews. The movie chronicles the adventures of air-drummer extraordinaire Power (played by Gold) and contains a cameo from Neil Peart along with a slew of Rush references. The film will finally be making its theatrical debut this Friday in New York City at the AMC Loews Village 7. There's also a New York City film release party this evening at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn that is open to the public. This Huffington Post article written by Gold from yesterday describes the movie and how it came to be. Here's an excerpt:

... When I was eight and heard the band Rush, I tried to drum along. After my mother's death twelve years later, while I was living in my aunt's basement in a mining town in the Southwest, I began to take notes about an air-drumming character. Though I was lonely and lost, I loved this broken little white/Hispanic/Native town, with its mix of cowboys, copper-miners, and curmudgeonly hippies, and I wondered how an air-drummer would fit in if he grew up here. Probably not very well. ...

I was lucky enough to see the movie early in 2008 and wrote this little review in my original post describing the film:

Adventures of Power is a quirky, unconventional movie in the tradition of Napolean Dynamite (picture Napolean Dynamite meets Footloose meets Rocky) which only takes itself half-seriously most of the time but is also surprisingly touching at times. I'll attempt to summarize it while keeping a straight face; believe me - a difficult thing to do ... this movie is hilarious. It follows Power (played by Ari Gold), a nerdy copper miner from Lode, New Mexico who has a passion for drumming. He became hooked on the drums after hearing Tom Sawyer on the radio after his mother's funeral when he was a boy. The problem is that his father never allowed him to learn to play the drums - so he instead air-drums. Power lives in his hippie Aunt's (played by Jane Lynch) basement, which he has transformed into a shrine to Rush and Neil Peart (his hero). The highlight of his week is displaying his air-drumming prowess on talent night at his aunt's bar. Unfortunately nobody in his small town seems to appreciate his skill except for a local boy who Power has taken under his wing after the boy's father died. After the miners - led by Power's father (played by Michael McKean) - go on strike Power heads to Mexico to participate in an air-drum-off. While there he nearly dies attempting to air-drum Tom Sawyer and is spotted by an air-drum trainer (played by Steven Williams) from New Jersey who asks him to come to Newark to train with his air-drum team. The rest of the film chronicles Power's adventures getting to Newark and training for the ultimate air-drumming competition. Also starring in the film is Adrian Grenier as Power's rival and a sort of quasi-villain, and Shoshannah Stern as Power's love interest. I won't reveal the details of Neil Peart's cameo so as to not spoil anything, but he shows up towards the end of the film and says a couple of lines.

For a complete list of theaters and show times check out the official site at this link. Here's the trailer:

I highly recommend this film to anyone, especially Rush fans.

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