Another documentary about punk rock. Turns out it’s about rebellion. Some cool footage if you are into this sort of thing.
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Jordan Hoffman is a New York-based writer and film critic working for The Guardian, Vanity Fair, Thrillist, Times of Israel, NY Daily News and elsewhere.
He is the host of ENGAGE: The Official Star Trek Podcast, a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and challenges you to a game of backgammon.
There’s more going on here than that. This may be the first documentary that lays out the connection between Malcom McClaren in New York trying to manage the New York Dolls (just as they imploded), then returning to London and imparting all he saw/learned onto the Sex Pistols. Not just the Dolls — he basically swiped the look/fashion of a lot of people in New York at the time, especially Richard Hell. I still remember hearing Never Mind the Bollocks for the first time and thinking how much some of it sounded exactly like the New York Dolls.
This connection has already been made in print — most notably in the great oral history by Legs McNeil. But most documentaries never really get into this. It also did a great job of laying out the roots of punk, all the way back to the 50s and 60s. Don Letts, who directed this, was part of the London scene, directed “The Punk Rock Movie” (a legendary flick … which kind of sucks … I know because I have it), made a name for himself as a reggae DJ in the prime of punk and later joined Mick Jones in Big Audio Dynamite. In short, the guy knows his stuff.