The new film titled “Killing Bono,” does just that. Based on the memoirs of Ivan McCormick, a young guitarist that Clayton and Larry Mullen auditioned to be in the band that would become U2. Despite the film’s title, it’s not a story about U2 haters, instead its light-hearted coming of age yarn about family and betrayal, as Ivan’s brother Neil schemed to make sure Ivan did not join Larry’s band so that he and his brother might form a better, rival band he creatively named “the McCormick Brothers.” What? Never heard of them? Yeah well that’s the whole point of “Killing Bono.”

A film like this likely captures that ephemeral, serendipitous quality that so often is the basis of great rock n roll. For instance, we learned in “It Might Get Loud,” another great rock documentary – that legendary Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Paige never laid eyes on a guitar until his parents happened to move to a new place where the previous owner had just happened to leave a guitar behind. The rest is history.

In a similar vein, Killing Bono starts out with that fateful notice posted on the school billboard by Larry Mullen. This film is Ivan McCormick’s long “what if” rumination about what could have been, would have been, and perhaps what should have been.

In the end, Ivan really can’t blame his brother for the confidence and arrogance that comes with youth. Who could know that four scraggly kids from Dublin would become a musical force of nature? Ultimately, “Killing Bono” is just what the title says it is; killing those demons that have surely haunted the McCormick Brothers, the demons that Bono’s larger than life persona represents. We only hope it works,  . . . for Ivan’s sake.