While “Rock School” was one of my favorite documentaries of 2005, it was a missed opportunity. Arne Johnson and Shane King’s “Girls Rock!” almost get the love of music and rock and roll it right. Almost. What the directing duo of Johnson and King explore is this collective ability of these different women to create music in the confines of this limited space and show how they can sometimes fall apart at the seams due to typically creative conflicts and arguments about band names.
Uncle Peckerhead (2020)
Director Matthew John Lawrence’s horror rock comedy is probably one of the best films about the punk rock experience since “The Green Room.” While nowhere near as dark as the aforementioned film, it’s a movie with a silly title that is shockingly complex, heartfelt and injected with a sharp message about how if you’re willing to do “anything” to make it big, it can come back to haunt you. While the title might be something of a turn off to some, “Uncle Peckerhead” really packs in so much heart and genuine characterization.
Celebrating “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” Ten Years Later
In 2010, “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” shocked me. Not because of Edgar Wright. If there’s any director out there that knows pop culture, it’s Edgar Wright. It’s more so how much Edgar Wright understood the idea of pop culture and how absolutely annoying the idea of nostalgia had become. It’d somewhat become a monstrosity of awareness, sarcastic catch phrases, and smug gate keeping. While “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” is a wonderful film filled with laughs, and some excellent performances, it’s also a polemic about how much pop culture has replaced actual culture. While a lot of others saw it as a great action celebration, I saw it as immensely cynical. It’s also why I love it so much.
Suzi Q (2020)
Suzi Quatro managed to leave a remarkable influence on female rockers, and how they operated in a world where men dominated, and women were objectified. Suzi Quatro has left such an indomitable stamp on the rock and music world, and “Suzi Q” offers keen insight not just in to the life of such an edgy musician, but in the oddly common conservative lifestyle of rock musicians.
KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978)
I think even during my days when I was all about KISS (1997-2003), I would have probably found “Phantom of the Park” kind of banal and run of the mill. It’s not so much that it’s a bad movie, but it’s kind of monotonous and tedious, even for the most forgiving fanatic. I mean forgiving as in you even accept their lame attempt at disco: “I Was Made for Loving You.” It’s so void of narrative or substance that not even the great rock music and theatrics from the band at the height of their fame can save what is a ton of filler and about twenty minutes of actual narrative.
The Best of The Online Movie Show
This week, “The Online Movie Show” is taking a holiday break. If you’ve missed any of the podcast’s 143 episodes, please check out the playlist and enjoy five seasons’ worth of programming.
The Bootleg Files: The Magic Christmas Tree
BOOTLEG FILES 752: “The Magic Christmas Tree” (1964 holiday season fiasco).
LAST SEEN: On YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: On public domain labels.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: No copyright on the film opens it to endless duping.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Who the hell would want to offer a 4K restored version of this thing?
Some crummy movies are so cluelessly terrible that they’ve earned the designation of being “so bad they’re good.” The 1964 atrocity “The Magic Christmas Tree” doesn’t fall into that genre. Instead, it needs to be shoved into the category of “so bad they’re terrible.”
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