Kill Your Idols (2004)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Simply A Masterpiece

Overrated

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

If documentaries such as 'Punk Rock Movie','The Decline Of Western Civilization','D.O.A:A Rite Of Passage',etc told the unvarnished truth of late 1970's/early 1980's Punk Rock,and carried over to later day rock docs such as 'Hardcore Underground U.S.A.' & '1991:The Year That Punk Broke', Scott Crary's 'Kill Your Idols' goes beyond & tells the tale of the late 70's,early 80's "No Wave" post punk noise scene in New York City. When Punk threatened to become homogenized into "New Wave" by the early 80's,a scene rose,Phoenix like,from the near wreckage of Punk to become "No Wave". It was the musical answer to a form of neo Dadism,where bands such as DNA,Sonic Youth,The Swans,Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel,to mention but a few,scraped & scratched a Freddy Kreuger like glove across the Cerebral Cortex of audiences at venues such as CBGB's,Max's Kansas City,etc.,pretty much until the end of the 80's/early 90's,when the scene seemed to implode upon itself (although some of the participants,as most of them preferred to not think of themselves as musicians, still played around at one point or another). Kill Your Idols tells it's sordid story in two parts. The first half of the film tells it's tale from the original mainstays of the No Wave scene (we get first hand testimony from the likes of Lydia Lunch,Thurston Moore,Lee Ranaldo,Michael Gira,J.G. Thirlwell,Arto Lindsay,and others),while the second half is a commentary of the next wave of N.Y.C. noise bands that are currently packing the clubs (the Yeah,Yeah,Yeahs,as well as others). What do the original denizens of the noise scene have to say about all of this? Find out for yourself. Scott Crary,besides directing this outstanding,albeit scathing rock doc, also photographs & edits. Well worth seeking out if you're a fan of early,as well as later day Punk Rock,Experimental,Avant Garde,Noise,New Music,etc. Not rated by the MPAA,but contains pervasive strong language & a bit of quasi-pornographic footage from some of the New York underground films of Richard Kern,Nick Zedd,etc. that is not for innocent eyes.

Growing up punk rock on the west coast in the 1970s, the New York scene seemed like a very exotic (and distant) flower indeed. This documentary does a half way decent job of documenting that scene and its influence on NY alterna-rock circa 2002. The interviews are great (especially Lydia Lunch and Michael Gira) and there's some stunning footage, BUT: I would dearly have loved to have seen complete performances instead of excerpts of Teenage Jesus, DNA, Suicide, and The Contortions. And speaking of which , where's James Chance--is he simply not speaking about the old days, or did the filmmakers simply drop the ball? As for the contempo bands, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs do seem to be carrying on the No Wave spirit to best effect, but Karen O is either one of the dimmest bulbs on the Christmas tree or just a terrible interview subject. All in all, Kill Y(ou)r Idols does just enough--but only barely.

A short documentary about the New York, 'No Wave' music scene. Bridging past and present, this movie starts out well, and the interviews with some of the older artists were great. Truthful, unpretentious, no holds barred. What was 'No Wave?' A musical movement that grew out of Punk Rock. Was it Punk Rock? Well, sort of, but not really. It was/is a more artistic expression, more of an experimental ethic. Unconventional to be sure, but the association by sound (with Punk) isn't as strong as the ethic (revolutionary). This documentary was obviously trying to show the continuation of this ethic, from past to present. I think it would have been better served as a focus on the roots of this movement, as the connection to the current music scene (up to 2004), paints the current group as more concerned with commercial aspects of their success, than they are with an honest expression of their own music. I like the way they let the artists tell the story, but some of the footage was a bit rough (poor quality), and then there was the totally unnecessary scene depicting oral sex?! What the? Why was that in there? In the end, it was a part of my past that really enjoyed this movie.

In the first half of this great documentary, we meet the former members of the 70's and early '80s New York no-wave scene which included Suicide, Lydia Lunch, DNA, Theoretical Girls, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Swans, and Sonic Youth. We learn how truly underground and chaotic their thing was; they took punk to an extreme that the more familiar NY bands (Dead Boys, Ramones, etc) never dared. This was anti-music, atonal and extreme, but very much in step with the punk ethos of breaking down the barrier between artist and audience. These were some truly desperate and alienated human beings raging out with the only means available to them. The docu features original on-stage footage filmed in tiny clubs as they shrieked, abused guitars, and pounded away in desperation. Whether or not you like that sort of thing, the scene's urgency and authenticity spoke for itself.Fast forward to the 21st century. For some reason the post-punk/no-wave shtick is fashionable again, and we meet the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Liars, Black Dice, and a few others. This is a selection of artists who happen to be in line, on some level, with the no-wave aesthetic- but as anyone who's been following recent pop trends knows, they exist within a larger musical and cultural context obsessed with late 70s/ early 80s rock culture in general. They tell us a little about gigging it the Apple today and how impressed they are with their forebears. That's about all. However, the original interviewees haven't gone away; somehow they're still alive and it's when they express their opinions on the new scene that the film really changes pace.Yes, the film's second half amounts to one of the most severe ass-beatings ever recorded. They're quite remorseless; Lydia Lunch is particularly scorching in her assessment. Pretty much all of the original interviewees express their contempt for current-day trendies and scenesters who have nothing to say and simply want to feed off the past (whilst wallowing in the fashion, of course). To be sure, the two scenes stand in sharp contrast; the old zeitgeist of alienation, risks, originality, and zero recognition is a bit different from today's skin-deep New York that can spawn the Strokes and hype them up into superstar status before anyone's heard them. It was amusing for me to see this film at a film festival because I saw it in a room full of young hipsters who came expecting to be flattered and instead must have felt that they received a big slap in the face. There was a palpable tension in the air…Fortunately the documentary doesn't set it all up as us vs. them, old scene vs. new scene. A glimpse of hope comes from the band Gogol Bordello and its leader Eugene Hutz, who emigrated from the Ukraine and play weird gypsy punk cabaret music in a downtown Manhattan joint. They're the only one of the crop of young bands featured here that seems to agree with Lunch and the rest that culture should look forward instead of backward.Anyway, as you walk out of the theatre, your heart torn out and your punky haircut about to collapse in a shambles of postmodern anxiety, don't be too hard on yourself. No, let me rephrase that. Be as hard on yourself as possible and don't try to escape the film's point; it'll come back to haunt you. But, it's not too late to change. When you wake up the next morning, you just might find the courage to do something that's actually original.