First of all, if you're a fan of Pennywise, Blink 182, Everclear, TSOL, Total Chaos, US Bombs, Flea, NOFX, Rancid, Bad Religion, Adolescents, or the Vandals, you're going to feel really old while watching this. The movie essentially tracks down rock stars who have kids and a family and attempts to show the hardships they go through while trying to tour and develop a family better than the one they came from. I thought the movie was very touching at times, especially when talking about Duane Peters' kid (I won't spoil it here).
The music in the film was great, but I think it's been said that hardly any fan of punk rock would include bands like Everclear or Rise Against in this "punk" documentary. And guys featured like Tony Hawk aren't even musicians (but I do understand – they tour just like rock stars). I had only heard two Pennywise songs total ever, but I feel that Jim Lindberg (singer for Pennywise until 2009) did a good job as the primary focus of the film (I'm pretty sure the doc is named after his book). The doc was very Los-Angeles-centric, but I think the subjects were pretty good band members to talk to (like Flea).
Although the story ended up well for Lindberg, I have to wonder about some of the kids because there's a lot of band members talking about "never changing my ways." Lars Frederiksen still wants to dress like a clown with his son (now he has two kids) no matter how many kids run away from the two of them, and Fat Mike recently got divorced and admits to using drugs, so there are a number of selfish issues that need to be explored for these fathers. I guess no one's perfect, so as a fan of music in general and punk music, I give the movie 7 stars. It helps if you have heard the bands mentioned in the documentary, but honestly, if you just give it a watch blind to the subjects, it still resonates the message.
The music in the film was great, but I think it's been said that hardly any fan of punk rock would include bands like Everclear or Rise Against in this "punk" documentary. And guys featured like Tony Hawk aren't even musicians (but I do understand – they tour just like rock stars). I had only heard two Pennywise songs total ever, but I feel that Jim Lindberg (singer for Pennywise until 2009) did a good job as the primary focus of the film (I'm pretty sure the doc is named after his book). The doc was very Los-Angeles-centric, but I think the subjects were pretty good band members to talk to (like Flea).
Although the story ended up well for Lindberg, I have to wonder about some of the kids because there's a lot of band members talking about "never changing my ways." Lars Frederiksen still wants to dress like a clown with his son (now he has two kids) no matter how many kids run away from the two of them, and Fat Mike recently got divorced and admits to using drugs, so there are a number of selfish issues that need to be explored for these fathers. I guess no one's perfect, so as a fan of music in general and punk music, I give the movie 7 stars. It helps if you have heard the bands mentioned in the documentary, but honestly, if you just give it a watch blind to the subjects, it still resonates the message.