The Plus-One: Getting By on Good Connections in the Analog Age

The Plus-One is about life on the periphery of fame, but it's also a compelling family drama, a comic coming-of-age tale, and a fizzy musical memoir set during the final throes of the pre-digital 20th century. Starting in the backseat of Courtney Love's limo and then shifting deeper into the past, The Plus-One is the story of David Klein, a music-obsessed bumbler finally granted the backstage access he craves and determined to make the most of it-even if that means being dissed by Gwyneth Paltrow and Marilyn Manson in the same epic, mortifying night. Whether he's singing bossa nova with Philip Seymour Hoffman, stealing a woman's shoe with a just-pre-fame Johnny Depp, or sharing a life-changing cigarette break with Lady Gaga, The Plus-One is told with a blend of acid wit and warm humanity.Alternating among celebrity encounters-with such pop culture icons as Winona Ryder, Ringo Starr, Bono, Arthur Miller, Phil Spector, and Tom Petty-are sharp-eyed recollections of long-gone demimondes: 1970s suburbia, AIDS-era New York City, and the workaday world of '90s office culture that blinked into existence in the hangover of those glitzy nights out. Throughout, a picture emerges of a young man learning to quit measuring himself against his own life's famous guest stars and settle in to growing up.