Comedy drama written and directed by Lee Kirk. The film follows middle-aged former punk rocker Perry (Billie Joe Armstrong) as he struggles to come to terms with life in the real world. When his wife Karen (Selma Blair) forgets his 40th birthday, his brother takes pity on him and gives him the money to have an extravagant party at an expensive New York hotel. However, when his former bandmates arrive to celebrate, Perry begins to crave the rock star lifestyle once more.
Its true, Joan Jett became mega-famous from the number-one hit 'I Love Rock n Roll'; but that's only part of the story. That fame intensified with the music videos endless play on MTV, world tours and many hits to follow like I Hate Myself for Loving You; but that staple of popularity cant properly define a musician. Jett put her hard work in long before the fame, ripping it up onstage as the backbone of the hard-rock legends The Runaways, starting her record label out of the trunk of a car after being rejected by 23 labels, and influencing many musicians - both her cohort of punk rockers and generations of younger bands - with her no-nonsense style. Bad Reputation gives you a wild ride as Jett and her close friends tell you how it really was in the burgeoning 70s punk scene and the rocky road to rock stardom decades on. Their interviews are laced with amazing archival footage. The theme is clear: Even though people tried to define Jett, she never compromised. She will kick your ass, and you ll love her all the more for it.
A DVD accompaniment to their greatest hits album, International Supervideos collects together American punk rockers Green Day's entire visual history to date. Now something of the elder statesmen of the movement, the compilation starts with tracks from their breakthrough major label debut Dookie and brings us up to date with the Warning album and its three singles. While their music has always stuck fairly close to the three-minute punk-pop template, the band have explored the video medium well. Managing to avoid the clichéd live performance approach, the majority of the clips instead place the band in various environments, from a mental hospital (the excellent "Basket Case") to the clever sports pastiche of "Nice Guys Finish Last". Ironically, the best track of the lot is the one that owes nothing to their usual influences, the emotive, acoustic "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)". With this willingness to step outside of there own parameters and the later material easily equal to the best of their career, International Supervideos is not only an essential purchase but one that hints at a bright future for the band. On the DVD: While punk rock isn't always about sound quality and clarity, International Supervideos is blessed with hi-fi crispness, providing an equally satisfying aural and visual experience. The almost cartoonish, Day-Glo quality of many of the videos is enhanced by the picture quality. Extras, however, are at a frustrating minimum. There's a web link, chapter selection and a subtitle facility, at last helping to make sense of Billie Joe's less than defined lyrics. --Phil Udell
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