At Any Cost (2000)

A recording contract: It's the brass ring for every rock band. And now Beyond Gravity, a group fronted by charismatic singer-songwriter-guitarist Lance and his hard-living younger brother Mike, and managed by their boyhood pal Ben, have finally grabbed theirs. It promises to be everything the three guys have worked for since high school, and when they leave their hometown of Austin, Texas to record for Los Angeles indie label Rage Records, Lance vows to his wife--Beyond Gravity's beautiful bass player Chelsea--to stay focused on the things that really matter: "It's all about the music. We're not gonna let anything screw it up." After almost a year of rehearsing and recording, however, there's still no release, no tour, no video. Part of the delay is due to Mike's growing substance addictions and subsequent stretches in rehab. Rage Records president Jerry Tollman tells Ben he's reluctant to spend more money on the band when it can all go south in a flash. When Mike is busted for heroin possession, he's given one last chance to clean up his act, or he's out of the band. But the issue becomes academic when Mike is found dead of an overdose. Chelsea quits Beyond Gravity to stay at home with their young son, and Lance regroups with new band members, but the chemistry is lost. And as the ambitious Ben begins to succumb to the temptations of power and money by trying to parlay his success with the band into bigger deals, Lance starts to question whether the price of fame is worth losing the woman he loves--as well as the brother whose mysterious death has left many unanswered questions.