Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986)
Jeff Krulik’s films — Mr. Blassie Goes to Washington, Led Zeppelin Played Here, Ernest Borgnine On the Bus — show a deep love and fear, often at the same time, for pop culture. The film itself is simple: a group of young metal fans get inordinately wasted while waiting to get in to a Judas Priest/Dokken concert […]
Another State of Mind (1984)
Upon the advent of the DVD format into the VHS-driven (Betamax lost that analog throwdown) market, the rock ‘n’ roll documentary market became flooded with one smug and pretentious, paint-by-the-numbers vanity ego-doc unfurling at a mind-numbing pace with unrelatable and emotionless subjects spewing historically-skewed “facts” that were in desperate need of an editor: insert a […]
Heavy Trip (2018)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks to Paul Andolina for being part of our music week. Paul writes often on our site, most often about Nicolas Cage and pro wrestling movies. Now, he’s back to talk about Heavy Trip, a heavy metal movie from Finland. To read more of his work, check out his sites Wrestling with Film and Is […]
Cotton Candy (1978)
“That’s part of the problem with being a kid actor. When your show’s over, nobody informs you that your career’s over, too.”— Luke Halpin, aka Sandy Ricks on TV’s Flipper (1964 – 1968) To become a child actor; a kid star, to paraphrase British modernist poet David Jones: it is both a blessing and a […]
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010)
As stated in our previous review of Cha Cha starring Herman Brood, Nina Hagen, and Lene Lovich, your enjoyment of this (admittedly) pretentious “art house” flick hinges on your appreciation of the music of Ian Dury (which, I’ll admit, is an acquired taste for U.S ears raised on the commercial, new wave refrains of America’s […]
The Decline of Western Civilization III (1998)
Penelope Spheeris went back one more time to Los Angeles’ music scene and it changed her life. But for years, she didn’t want to ever revisit the three films that make up The Decline of Western Civilization. According to The Verge, she wanted her daughter Anna Fox to take over the family business of making movies […]
Blank Generation (1980)
Editor’s Update: In October 2021, Dark Force Entertainment announced their Blu-ray reissue of this punk classic. Learn more with their Facebook announcement. Your willingness to slog through this punk-inspired drama — that is admittedly artsy and boring, rife with a lack of narrative clarity, bad acting, and an overall production incoherency courtesy of its failed […]
20th Century Oz (1976)
Leave it to Australia — and experimental filmmaker Chris Löfvén — to transform Dorothy into a sixteen-year-old groupie who hits her head when traveling with a rock band. Now, she’s on the road to see the last show of androgynous rock god The Wizard, but a thug — she killed his brother — is chasing […]
Darktown Strutters (1977)
George Armitage wrote Gas-s-s-s, Private Duty Nurses, Night Call Nurses and Vigilante Force before scoring mainstream success with Miami Blues and Grosse Point Blank. He told Film Comment, “I wrote Darktown Strutters in three days, and the script form is all one sentence, the entire script is one sentence.” While he had wanted to direct this, William Witney ended up making it. […]
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