I was appalled by the concert yesterday, which I was fortunate enough not to experience in person–my boss called me back inside to type up posts from Jule Banville, who was in the thick of things by one of the Jumbotrons. So I listened on NPR. The lineup was so boomer-oriented! It was creepy, like your parents offering to try pot with you your first time, because they'd been through the Summer of Love and could be good spirit guides. Gens X and Y may have been the engine of the Obama campaign, but it didn't take long for the People Who Remember Vietnam to remind us this was their dream first, even to the point of hauling out poor old Pete Seeger for one more round of "This Land Is Your Land."

I don't mind hearing about art from Ashley Judd or sacrifice from Jack Black or citizenship from Marisa Tomei. You take Hollywood money, that's the price I guess, and it's relatively innocuous. But when Bono gave a shoutout Joe Biden it was almost too perfect–a boomer rock star calling out an archetypical boomer politician. This dream, Bono announced, was the American dream. But it was also the Irish dream. And the Israeli dream. And the Palestinian dream. And so on, till the dream's significance had become so diffuse it was really more a notion, a goal, or a New Year's resolution.

After the third or fourth old white rich singer performed with gospel singers–a slam-dunk signifier of soul to boomers, who gave us gospel brunches in addition to herpes, Billy Joel, and all-star jams at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame–I just had to wonder how the music would have been different had Hillary Clinton been elected instead. Maybe Fleetwood Mac, I guess. But really the only thing missing was Sting and his fucking lute.

Photo by David Katz/Presidential Inaugural Committee

The film is a surprisingly touching story about a washed-up pro wrestler that stars Tomei and an Oscar-worthy Mickey Rourke. Fans of Aronofsky's, whose previous work includes Pi, Requiem for a Dream, and The Fountain, may be disappointed to find that The Wrestler is...absolutely straightforward. Linear. No trippiness, no confusion. (Drugs, though...there are drugs.)

But it's a stellar movie, a standout in a year that's seen far too few. Here are a few fun facts from the postfilm Q&A:

–Bruce Springsteen, a friend of Rourke's, wrote and performed the film's closing-credits song for free.

–The screenplay is by former Onion editor-in-chief Robert D. Siegel.

–Aronofsky says he chose Rourke because he's "kind of into actors that are a surprise."

–Rourke, gruff, burly, and with his peroxide-blond locks in a hair net, served actual customers in scenes that show Randy working at a supermarket deli counter (which accounts for the shoppers' mostly befuddled and somewhat amused expressions).

–Aronofsky chose to frequently shoot Rourke from behind because his mentor, The Pope of Greenwich Village director Stuart Rosenberg, told him that "Mickey is so expressive with his back."

–Tomei was instructed to text the director when she decided whether she wanted the role of Randy's love interest, a stripper named Cassidy: "rock 'n' roll" meant yes, "easy listening" meant no.

–"Rowdy" Roddy Piper gave the film his blessing, after standing up at a screening and scaring the crap out of Aronofsky and Tomei with a brusquely stammered, "What you guys did...I don't know where you did your research..."

–When one audience member said that he's never touched drugs because he saw Requiem for a Dream when he was 14, Aronofsky replied, "I'm really, really sorry about that. You don't know what you're missing."

Photos courtesy of Nell "Movie Mom" Minow.

Aronofsky and WAFCA's Kevin McCarthy

Tomei with WAFCA's Nell Minow