Unfortunately i’m not overly taken with this movie. Many of you will remember a few years ago ‘The Filth and the Fury’. A movie about the Sex Pistols released around 2002. Since then, there’s been a few band docos hitting the market, including ‘End of the Century. The Story of the Ramones’, ‘DIG’ and ‘Some Kind of Monster’ to name a few. Especially the punk docos since the ‘Fury, seem hellbound on denoting punk as starting in New York and downplaying the pistols as the originators of punk. Seems there’s a few bucks in making a rock doc these days . . .

Fortunately the roll call is impressive. Everyone from Jello Biafra to the Dictactors, the Buzzcocks you name it. It contradicts a lot of points made in the ‘Filth. But the ‘Filth came out first! The forefathers of punk are very well represented, eg Richard Hell and the New York Dolls. I didn’t even know they were still alive!

The extras i’ve fallen asleep to twice. They are basically extended interview excerpts and repeat bits of the movie constantly. There is a hilarious launch Q&A with Jay and the Doctor from Triple J and John Letts. That’s worth the price of admission alone, because you see how restless Letts really is and his real motivations for putting this doco together. But the rest are a bit gruelling to watch in one sitting.

Essentially, Punk purports that ‘punk’ is a style and an attitude. It’s not a genre per se. Because as they demonstrate, so many key punk acts (eg Suicide, Television, even Lou Reed) we so punk by being themselves.

First and foremost, the motivation for this movie is what counts. Letts and his punk proteges are STILL pissed off after all these years. And this movie sets out to be a bit of a ‘how to’ for generation x from the punk generation. Which can come off like a lecture from Grandad. But what fucking cool granddads!

3.5 out of 5!