Wheeler Review: Savor the Music and Soul of Stephen Dorff's Transformation

Release date: March 30, 2021 (Digital re-release)
Running time: 98 minutes
Director: Ryan Ross
Writers: Stephen Dorff, Ryan Ross
Starring: Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson, Audrey Spillman

Wheeler (Stephen Dorff) is an aspiring musician from Kaufman, Texas who travels to Nashville with the lifelong dream of trying his hand at country music. By embodying the title character under prosthetic make up, actor Stephen Dorff successfully infiltrates Music City and takes his character on an authentic singer/songwriter journey. With the help of key allies on the ground, “Wheeler” converses with real people in real locations, with every musical number performed live. The line between reality and fiction blurs as Wheeler chases his dream in this touching tribute to old school country legends.

Wheeler is an interesting project; a documentary style film that has Stephen Dorff completely transforming into an aspiring country music singer.  The film has an overarching story that involves actors and musicians interacting with Wheeler, but the musical performances are Dorff performing live.  It's a strange scenario as it is not simply a documentary style film, but rather a film that has aspects of real performances.  And Dorff is really good as Wheeler.  He does come off as sounding like he's from another time, but he can play multiple instruments and has a great voice.  I really enjoyed hearing his songs and even if you're not a country music fan, you will find plenty to like about his singing.  

And although the film is an odd one, it is different enough that I enjoyed my time with Wheeler.  Although the film follows Wheeler's rise in the music scene, it does have a nice, slow pace.  The film invites you to just enjoy the slow pace and live in the moment.  And I also really liked the Wheeler character, someone who is so joyful and heartfelt about his music that he can't help but rub off on you.  The film felt like a labor of love by all involved.  And Wheeler's experience in Nashville were heartening to see; the local music community embraced him and cheered him on.  It didn't seem competitive despite how difficult that industry is.  It felt like a genuinely supportive climate of music fans.  

However, the documentary style of the film can seem off, especially when there are some people who are not in on the experience.  It was tough to tell where the movie ended and where the performances began, and who was in on the story.  My general thought is that everyone who plays any role in this film is in on it, but is the nice waitress Wheeler meets part of the crew or a random person?  This leads to other questions about the movie.  I loved the supportive atmosphere by the musicians and music executives, but were those simply for the camera?  Nashville came off as a wonderful place to explore music, but I couldn't help but think it was a partial marketing message.  And the slow pace of the film could definitely be a negative as sometimes Wheeler will just go off on tangents; something that would not be too uncommon in a real documentary but it felt a little odd in a movie.  And the film is a fun journey but does seem to end too quickly for my liking.  I wanted to see more of Wheeler's story and hear more of his songs.

Wheeler is an interesting experiment with a transformative performance by Stephen Dorff, letting you follow the wonderful music and savor the views of his alter ego.

Rent it.

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Wheeler was originally released in 2017, but has been rereleased on Bluray and digital on March 30, 2021.

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