‘Chasing Happiness’ Peddles Jonas Brothers Creation Myth From Jersey Roots To Happy Reunions

I saw the Jonas Brothers once. If you know anything about me – my age (let’s just avoid an actual number, OK?), the fact that I spent my youth at CBGB’s or that I consider AC/DC my spirit animal, this might be surprising, but I am also a parent and around 2010 I found myself at a music industry fundraiser for kids where they were the featured entertainment. It was kind of weird for me because I knew one of the dudes working the stage and he had just gotten out of jail for murder, but that’s another story. Regardless, I thought they were pretty good, jumped around a lot, had cool guitars, and I’m pretty sure they were actually playing them. Obviously, I was not their target audience, but it was a hell of a lot better than some boy band lip-synching a song scientifically engineered in a recording studio in Belgium to generate millions of downloads.

Turns out that though they may be multi-millionaires with platinum records and television shows and famous wives, the JoBros are just three salt of the Earth guys from New Jersey. At least that’s what Chasing Happiness, the new Amazon Prime documentary, would like you to think. Released to coincide with Happiness Begins, their first studio album in 10 years, it takes you from their “humble roots” through their first flush of success, and examines fame’s personal toll on the family and the long road back to brotherly love and the top of the pop charts.

A montage of screaming teenage girls, abandoned toys, home movies and family photographs introduces the story, as we’re told it’s time for the brothers to stop looking at the past through rose-colored glasses. At this point I feel it necessary to admit I have no idea which brother is which. Actually, I kind of know who Nick is because he played one of the greatest guitar solos of all time, but yeah, the other two, no idea. Eventually I will come to view them as Kevin, the wounded one, Joe, the aloof one, and Nick, the self-important one.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was Jerz. Throughout the documentary, the Jonas Brothers talk about their beginnings in the Garden State, where their father was a pastor at a Pentecostal church in Wyckoff. “We were not supposed to get out of Jersey,” they say, and then they were dropped by their first record label, they were “back in New Jersey,” but a way less cool part, Little Falls, ugh. They even had to share a bedroom, what a drag. Even after their success, after they sold a badillion records and appeared at the Grammys with Stevie Wonder, and dated other celebrities, they still kept pushing, afraid it would all disappear and they’d have to go back to Jersey, but an even lamer part, like Whippany! NOOOOO NOT WHIPPANY!!!!!!!

Nick says he wants to dispel the rumors that the group was put together by Disney in order to build a television franchise around. He sets the record straight, explaining they were actually put together by Sony Music in order to sell lots of records. To be fair, all three brothers exhibited tremendous talent at a young age. Pushed to become a pop punk band by Sony, they played shopping malls and gymnasiums during the day, rock clubs at night. They were later dropped, then signed to the Disney-owned Hollywood Records. Their corporate mouse overlords saw the band’s potential to be successful across multiple mediums and thanks to their early embrace of MySpace – yes, MySpace, stop laughing – they were soon the biggest band in the world.

As might be expected when taking three brothers who hadn’t yet graduated high school and turning them into global superstars, shit got complicated. Growing pains begat solo careers, and while Nick and Joe found success outside the band, Kevin settled into family life. In one of the film’s more excruciating moments, Nick and Joe try to explain why Kevin was left out of a reunion show after their official split. They don’t really have a good explanation but later explain how now that they’re married, they understand why his wife and kids were more important to him than the band. It’s so condescending I was hoping Kevin yoke up his little brothers and give them nuggies.

The film ends with the boys back together after Nick decided he missed playing with his brothers. This is after we see him being flown by helicopter to a show in Las Vegas while Kevin buys diapers at a Jersey shopping mall, which, granted, does suck. They then play the first song they ever wrote together in an empty theater before trotting out their movie star wives like so many props and pay more lip service to the bonds of family. By the way, their new record debuted at number 1, so yay family.

Though Chasing Happiness successfully chronicles the Jonas Brothers incredible journey to the highest reaches of fame, it fails in humanizing them. While I was genuinely impressed with their talent at such a young age and the hard work they put in to achieve their goals, I ended up liking them less as people by the documentary’s end. Rather than being a tribute to the enduring bonds of family, it seemed to turn the group’s brotherhood into just another marketing tool or piece of merchandise, like a beach towel or doll.

Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician. Follow him on Twitter:@BHSmithNYC.

Stream Chasing Happiness on Amazon Prime