Barnes & Noble

Stephen Woolley, a longtime producer associated with Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan, makes a remarkable directorial debut with this affecting biopic of Rolling Stones co-founder Brian Jones, whose unabashed pursuit of pleasure led to disillusionment, disgrace, and early death. Leo Gregory plays Jones, the Stones’ utility musician and early driving force, as a basically decent but self-destructive young man. His many paramours include actress Anita Pallenberg (Monet Mazur) and dancer Anna Wohlin (Tuva Novotny), who join him on drug-fueled odysseys that eventually get him fired from the wildly successful band. Deciding to renovate his country estate, Jones hires contractor Frank Thorogood (Paddy Considine), who becomes jealous and resentful of his boss. The film provides a rather unambiguous but unverifiable account of the suspicious circumstances under which the 27-year-old Jones died in 1969, but this is not its true purpose. Stoned is at heart a cautionary tale of someone who had it all and threw it all away. The Swinging '60s are punctiliously re-created in sets, costumes, and musical backgrounds; and Woolley effectively conveys the era’s anything-goes spirit, which, for the unlucky, sometimes led to disaster. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

The final days of one of the truly legendary figures of British rock & roll are explored in this biographical drama, which marks the directorial debut of veteran producer Stephen Woolley. Brian Jones (played by Leo Gregory) was one of the founding members of the Rolling Stones, and his incisive blues guitar style, broad range of musical influences, and striking blond good looks helped establish him as part of the true royalty of the British music scene. But by 1969, Jones' life had begun to spiral out of control; his appetite for drugs made him wildly unreliable, his arrests for possession of marijuana prevented the Stones from touring the United States, his bandmates Mick Jagger (Luke de Woolfson) and Keith Richards (Ben Whishaw) had grown tired of working with him (and envious of the attention he received in the press), and his longtime paramour Anita Pallenberg (Monet Mazur) had become involved with fellow Stone Richards. Worried about Jones' drug abuse, the band's tour manager, Tom Keylock (David Morrissey), hires middle-aged carpenter Frank Thorogood (Paddy Considine) to do some repairs at Jones' estate, but also asks him to look after the musician and try to keep him away from dope. Keylock underestimates the power of Brian's personality, and before long, the straight-arrow Thorogood is Jones' household manservant and partner in hedonism, through Thorogood begins to chafe at the emotional games Jones enjoys playing with his new companion. Stoned was adapted in part from three different books on Brian Jones and the Rolling Stones as well as recently uncovered interviews with people who claim to have been involved in Brian Jones' death. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 025193056825
• Source: SCREEN MEDIA
• Time: 1:42:00

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