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If it takes doing an MCU movie, with all the corporate constrictions that entails, to plunge into the kind of exhilarating creative exorcism that Freaky Tales represents, then bring on the superhero as stepping-stone. Before they made Captain Marvel, longtime filmmaking duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck established their talents with three boldly idiosyncratic indies, Half Nelson, Sugar and Mississippi Grind. But nothing in those distinctive works can prepare you for the kinetic energy, the freewheeling imagination and the righteous battles — we’re talking rap and some serious blade slice-and-dice — of their love letter to the Bay Area and the pop-cultural imprint it left on Fleck as a kid in the ‘80s.

The tales of the title are four chapters all built around the theme of underdog victory, each of them different in texture and tone yet all ingeniously interconnected and all owing something to the big-screen aesthetics of the time.

Whether or not you agree with Quentin Tarantino’s unsparing assertion that “’80s cinema is, along with the ’50s, the worst era in Hollywood history,” there’s a curiously undeniable truth to his follow-up statement: “Matched only by now! Matched only by the current era.” Revisiting the defining movies of the ’80s from our current perspective at the height of Barbenheimer summer, two things become abundantly clear.

The first is that modern Hollywood would probably need a Barbenheimer every month in order to equal the creative output of a studio system that used to be capable of releasing “Blade Runner” and “The Thing” on the same night as if it were just another Friday. The second is that, in a wide variety of different ways both negative and not, the ’80s provide a perfect match for the movies of our current moment — if not the current moment itself.

Perhaps that...

Four decades after Fear’s debut album shook up punk-rock morals for a generation, the band is recognizing its legacy with an expansive box-set reissue. Earlier this year, frontman Lee Ving and his bandmates reacquired control of the original master tapes of The Record from Warner Music, which they’re remastering. (The rights officially reverted to the group on Monday.) They’re complementing The Record with a collection of 28 demos, rough mixes, and outtakes as well as live recording from 1982. Preorders for the reissue will begin on May 16 — the 40th...

Penelope Spheeris’s trilogy about LA’s punk and hair metal scenes is both hopeful and bleak, with revealing interviews with future stars

The Decline of Western Civilization is streaming on YouTube. For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click hereGet our weekend culture and lifestyle email and listen to our podcast

When Penelope Spheeris was making the first part of her landmark documentary The Decline of Western Civilization in 1979 and 1980, none of the people she was chronicling were known outside of Los Angeles’s dank punk scene. They played furious music in clubs that looked and smelled like bathrooms, and lived in squats that looked and smelled like squats. But The Decline of Western Civilization is the first and best film of what would become a loosely linked trilogy exploring different LA subcultures over three decades.

Featuring rough-ready footage shot at gigs and candid interviews with future punk stars,...

Dave Grohl hasn’t sat still for more than 30 years, so it’s not much of a surprise that he’s ended up creating and starring in his own feature film.

As Pat Smear, one of the founders of L.A. punk legends The Germs, touring guitarist in Nirvana and a cornerstone of Grohl’s Foo Fighters, told him, “Drummers are like sharks, if they stop moving, they’ll die.”

In Studio 666, a horror comedy in the vein of The Evil Dead, perpetual movement doesn’t necessarily prevent death either. (Watch the trailer below.)

Grohl, who came up with the idea of the Open Road Films-distributed film that debuts theatrically on February 25, is a fascinating creature.

For some, he is best known as the drummer of Nirvana; for many he is the founder and frontman of Foo Fighters, a group that began as a solo project and turned into one of the most successful,...

Garth: What do you do if every time you see this one incredible woman, you think you’re gonna hurl?

Wayne: I say hurl. If you blow chunks and she comes back, she’s yours. But if you spew and she bolts, it was never meant to be.

Sage advice from two legends. Really, this line from the original Penelope Spheeris-helmed Wayne’s World (1992) sort of encapsulates a lot about what makes that film so great: its strength is its expert ability to elucidate intelligent truths, covertly bundled in the ramblings of airheads.

That movie was released 30 (!) years ago today, February 14th, 1992. It’s time for a most excellent look back at the classic blockbuster comedy, for those of us who don’t want to live in the now. Party on.

First developed by star Mike Myers as a precocious preteen in the Canadian suburb of Scarborough, Ontario, the Wayne...

Wayne’s World is celebrating its 30-year anniversary and it’s party time. Excellent. Originally released on Feb. 14, 1992, and most recently re-released in a Blu-ray Steelbook edition, it brought Mike Myers and Dana Carvey’s lo-fi cable hosts Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar from weekly segment appearances on Saturday Night Live to global domination on the big screen.

Written by Myers, Bonnie Turner, and Terry Turner, Wayne’s World wasn’t expected to be a hit, much less a comedy classic with a $183 million worldwide box office take, and a sequel. It defied convention, enthusiastically breaking the fourth wall with characters directly addressing the camera, and exploring self-referential jokes, random cultural spoofs, and self-fulfilling alternative ending gags.

Also starring Rob Lowe, Tia Carrere, Lara Flynn Boyle, Brian Doyle-Murray, Chris Farley, Ed O’Neill, and Ione Skye, Wayne’s World captured every key demographic. Advertisers begged to get spoofed in the product placement take-down takeoffs,...

Premiering on Feb. 14, 1992, Wayne’s World was a Valentine’s Day gift to heavy metal music. Starring Mike Myers as lo-fi cable host Wayne Campbell and Dana Carvey as his best friend/chimp/“with you as always” Garth Algar, the film followed in the tradition of The Blues Brothers, a Saturday Night Live skit that became a big screen buddy movie which had that box office “schwing.” Both films highlighted a particular music genre, and each brought on experts in the sonic reality.

Penelope Spheeris directed the cult punk rock/heavy metal masterpiece documentary film series The Decline of Western Civilization, and turned down the heavy metal satire This Is Spinal Tap because it wasn’t headbanging enough. She’d also caught the dark side of punk squatter slacking in the 1984 coming of age drama Suburbia. In directing Wayne’s World, Spheeris captures the subtle tension between a metal-head’s manic persona...

The El Duce Tapes Special Edition Blu-ray will be available from Arrow Video February 9th

In the early 90s, aspiring filmmaker (and General Hospital co-star) Ryan Sexton lugged a giant camcorder into some of the seediest clubs and the filthiest apartments in Hollywood. There he filmed hour upon hour of VHS footage of the jaw-droppingly offensive Shock Rock band The Mentors, focusing on their infamous lead singer, El Duce. 30 years later, the team behind The Nightmare and Room 237 and the editor of Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist uncover this dusty stockpile of long forgotten and unseen footage. They begin to piece together a picture of the man under the black executioner s hood and what his wilfully offensive act and controversial views might tell us about 21st century America.

An incendiary, tragicomic documentary (midway between The Decline of Western Civilization and Crumb) which has been...

The music documentary resurgence is alive and well and set to continue into 2021 with an insatiable appetite for weird and wild movies about bands and artists. The release over recent years of films such as Amy and Searching For Sugar Man kicked off a trend that has been amplified by interest from the streaming services.

This year, there have been fantastic rock docs including Laurel Canyon, The Beastie Boys Story, The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne, The Go-Go’s, Creem: America’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll Magazine, The Changin’ Times of Ike White, Coachella: 20 Years In the Desert, The Bee Gees: How You Can Mend a Broken Heart, Blind Melon’s All I Can Say, Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan, Song Exploder, Other Music and Zappa.

While there has been the regular churning of promotional films masquerading as documentaries, there have been more well researched deep dives into artists than ever before.

From Lake of Dracula to The Wizard of Gore and The El Duce Tapes, Arrow Video's streaming service has an eclectic mix of cult genre titles for you to enjoy:

London, UK - Arrow Video is excited to announce the November lineup of their new subscription-based Arrow platform, available now in the US and Canada. Building on the success of the Arrow Video Channel and expanding its availability across multiple devices and countries, Arrow boasts a selection of cult classics, hidden gems and iconic horror films, all curated by the Arrow Video team. November will include the launch of Ban This Sick Filth!, a rotating catalog highlighting some of the most controversial films ever made, including We Are the Flesh, Orgies of Edo, The Baby, The Woman and Bat Pussy.

The lineup begins November 2nd with The El Duce Tapes, the new X-rated music documentary about the self-styled “King...

John Doe doesn’t think often about Los Angeles, the landmark punk record his band X released 40 years ago this month. He estimates he hasn’t even played the LP — which ranks on several Rolling Stone lists, including the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and the 40 Greatest Punk Albums — in 35 years. “We play all those songs all the time live,” he says. “Recordings are great, but if you’re in the middle of it, playing songs live is better.”

But even though he hasn’t put on the vinyl in decades,...

I’m a sucker for documentaries about cinema. There’s just something about a doc looking inward on its own medium that compels me. Perhaps it’s just the cinephile in me, yearning to learn as much as possible about as many films as possible? That’s a possibility, but it also could just be how fun they tend to be. The new documentary series Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All Time, is definitely an example of that. Dropping tomorrow, part one of the three part series, Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All Time Part I – Midnight Madness, dives into just what makes a midnight movie, why they’re so special, and how a cult of fandom has formed around so many of them. It’s a deeply enjoyable experience that I recommend highly for fans of the genre. The film is a documentary, part one...

I came of age (whatever that means) in the ’80s, so I’m always very interested in what Severin Films re-releases from that era; some I’ve seen and some I haven’t, and others I’ve never even heard of before. The two new releases from Severin I’ll be looking at today fit in that middle category—ones I know of very well, but yet remained unseen. Until now, that is; Severin has seen fit to load up the fantasy/actioner/softcore Gwendoline (1984) and the harrowingly violent The Boys Next Door (1985) with everything a viewer could want to know.

Gwendoline (1984): Otherwise known as The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak, this film is goofy, immature, leering, and has stunning set design. Yes, it’s French; how’d you guess? Writer/director Just Jaeckin (Lady Chatterley’s Lover) has concocted an almost unwieldy mix of Raiders of the Lost Ark,...

” I always had hopes of being a big star. But as you get older, you aim a little lower. “

Paris Is Burning (1990) screens at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood) Friday Auhust 16th, Saturday August 17th. It will screen there again September 6-8th. The screenings begin at 7:30 each evening. Facebook invite can be found Here.

A movie that the world is still catching up to, Jennie Livingston’s Paris is Burning looks at drag ball culture in Harlem in the 1980s. Calling to mind other great counterculture docs of the era, such as Penelope Spheeris’s The Decline of Western Civilization, Paris brings you into a world of voguing, rival houses, throwing shade, and all kinds of other cultural touchstones that have been slowly creeping into mainstream consciousness in the intervening 30 years. Indispensable.

Admission is:

$7 for the general public

$6 for seniors, Webster alumni and students from other...

Netflix may get most of the attention, but it’s hardly a one-stop shop for cinephiles who are looking to stream essential classic and contemporary films. Each of the prominent streaming platforms — and there are more of them all the time — caters to its own niche of film obsessives. From chilling horror fare on Shudder, to the boundless wonders of the Criterion Channel, and esoteric (but unmissable) festival hits on the newly launched Ovid.tv, IndieWire’s monthly guide will highlight the best of what’s coming to every major streaming site, with an eye towards exclusive titles that may help readers decide which of these services is right for them.

Here’s the best of the best for June 2019.

Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime isn’t offering its subscribers much in the way of exclusives this month, and — for reasons that aren’t entirely clear — the brunt of the platform...

If you’re a film fan that’s under the age of 30, there’s a large chance you’re not familiar with the work of filmmaker Penelope Spheeris. And frankly, that’s a damn shame. While many know her for her work on films like “Wayne’s World,” “Little Rascals,” and “Black Sheep,” the director revolutionized how punk rock was portrayed in cinema thanks to her films “The Decline of Western Civilization” (which would go on to have two respected sequels) and “Suburbia” (a cult film that was recently restored and deserves wider recognition).

Continue reading ‘Wayne’s World’ Filmmaker Penelope Spheeris Says Working With The Weinsteins Led To Her Decision To Leave Hollywood at The Playlist.

Wayne’s World director Penelope Spheeris has said farewell to Hollywood for good — but it wasn’t an easy decision.

The 73-year-old director opened up about leaving the industry in an interview with the A.V. Club in which she said, “there’s no forgiveness” in Hollywood.

“Women can’t make mistakes,” Spheeris said. “You can’t screw up when you’re a woman. One little mistake and you’re done.”

Spheeris is best known for her 1981 documentary The Decline of Western Civilization as well as for her 1992 film Wayne’s World which is her highest-grossing movie to date with $183.1 million at the box office.

Filmmaker Penelope Spheeris has not released a movie in theaters since the 2011 comedy “Balls to the Walls,” and she makes it definitely clear in a new interview with A.V. Club that she has no plans to direct in Hollywood again. It turns out Spheeris made a conscious decision to leave filmmaking and Hollywood behind after helming the 2012 television movie “The Real St. Nick.” The reason why? “Hollywood changed into something that I didn’t want to be a part of,” Spheeris said.

“It was too — it’s ugly,” she continued. “You have no friends in Hollywood. Hollywood is a lonely, lonely desert, especially as a woman.”

In exiting Hollywood, Spheeris put behind her a four-decade career in moviemaking. The director is best known for making the punk documentary “The Decline of Western Civilization” and narrative features “The Little Rascals,” “Senseless,” and “Wayne’s World” — IndieWire recently named “The Decline of Western Civilization...

Iggy Pop will serve as executive producer on the upcoming four-part docuseries Punk, with fashion designer John Varvatos also on board to tell Epix’s “quintessential story of punk.”

The Stooges legend is also among the artists to provide exclusive interviews to the series. Sex Pistols’ John Lydon, Dave Grohl, Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, Marky Ramone, MC5’s Wayne Kramer, Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra, Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan and The Decline of Western Civilization director Penelope Spheeris and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea contributing to Punk.

Spike your mohawk and safety pin your ripped shirts because award-winning fashion designer John Varvatos and music legend Iggy Pop are teaming to bring a bit of rebellion to TV. The pair will serve as executive producers of Punk, a four-part docuseries that has been greenlit by Epix.

Varvatos will partner with filmmaker Derik Murray’s Network Entertainment to produce the quintessential story of punk which is currently in production and is set to premiere on Epix on March 11, 2019. Murray will also produce the docuseries which will be directed by Jesse James Miller.

The docuseries will feature original, exclusive interviews with America’s punk pioneers and the UK’s most notorious bands. In addition to being Ep, Iggy Pop will lend his voice to the Punk narrative alongside Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols/Public Image Ltd./PiL), Marky Ramone (Ramones), Debbie Harry and Chris Stein (Blondie), Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses...

Playback is a Variety / iHeartRadio podcast bringing you conversations with the talents behind many of today’s hottest films. New episodes air every Thursday.

With 15 years in the film business behind him, 34-year-old actor Jonah Hill has made the transition to directing with “Mid90s,” a raw, personal story of his youth brought to life by an array of actors and non-actors. Inspired by filmmakers like Mike Nichols and Barry Levinson, who moved from comedy to drama with equal aplomb, Hill says he held out on tackling his first feature behind the camera because, after all, you only ever get one crack at it. The result is a work that has been compared to the cinema of Larry Clark and Richard Linklater, but nevertheless pulses with its own distinctive voice.

Listen to this week’s episode of “Playback” below. New episodes air every Thursday.

Click here for more episodes of “Playback.

Photo courtesy of Penelope SpheerisOn a Saturday morning in Los Angeles I found myself on the corner of Lookout and Wonderland. As cars zoomed by giving me the “what are you doing here” side-eye and adult men walking tiny dogs surrounded me with their faux-friendly, suspicious waves, I felt superficially like one of the gutter punks—out of place, but unapologetically present—in the films of the director for whom I was patiently waiting curbside, the undisputed Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll Filmmakers: Penelope Spheeris. Earlier in the week, Spheeris (The Decline of Western Civilization, 1981; Suburbia, 1983; Wayne’s World, 1992) asked me to meet her on this seemingly random street corner in Laurel Canyon where she promised to pick me up in her silver Escalade and take us up the long, winding path to her new home—currently under construction—so that we might converse on the balcony while overlooking the peaceful,...

As is annual tradition, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has announced this year’s 25 film set to join the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Selected for their “cultural, historic and/or aesthetic importance,” the films picked range from such beloved actioners as “Die Hard,” childhood classic “The Goonies,” the seminal “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” and the mind-bending “Memento,” with plenty of other genres and styles represented among the list.

The additions span 1905 to 2000, and includes Hollywood blockbusters, documentaries, silent movies, animation, shorts, independent, and even home movies. The 2017 selections bring the number of films in the registry to 725.

“The selection of a film to the National Film Registry recognizes its importance to American cinema and the nation’s cultural and historical heritage,” Hayden said in an official statement. “Our love affair with motion pictures is a testament to their enduring power to enlighten, inspire and...

When Greta Gerwig’s already-lauded “Lady Bird” hits limited release later this week, the actress-writer-director will join a long line of other female filmmakers who used their directorial debut (this one is Gerwig’s solo directorial debut, just for clarity’s sake) to not only launch their careers, but make a huge mark while doing it. Gerwig’s Saoirse Ronan-starring coming-of-age tale is an instant classic, and one that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who has enjoyed Gerwig’s charming work as a screenwriter in recent years, bolstered by her ear for dialogue and her love of complicated and complex leading ladies.

While Hollywood still lags when it comes to offering up opportunities to its most talented female filmmakers, many of them have overcome the dismal stats to deliver compelling, interesting, and unique first features. In short, they’re good filmmakers who made good movies,...

Like all Wes Anderson movies, “Rushmore” is made special in part by its carefully curated soundtrack. Mark Mothersbaugh, the Kinks, Donovan, the Creation and other artists provide the musical accompaniment to Max Fischer’s coming of age and remind us of Anderson’s artful meticulousness. Courtesy of Kentucker Audley, we now have a new version of the “Rushmore” soundtrack to ponder — and it’s hilarious in its awfulness.

Read More:‘Garden State’ with Wall-to-Wall Dave Matthews Band Is Pretty Hilarious — Watch

If you ever wanted to know how Smash Mouth’s “All Star” would pair with Anderson’s second film, now’s your chance. And if you were curious how the opening credits would feel accompanied by Spin Doctors, by all means indulge yourself. Just try not to get too angry when your favorite musical cues from the film are replaced by tracks that, though apropos of the movie’s 1998 release date,...

If you happen to be in Aurora, Illinois any time over the next six months, be sure to stop by the pop-up replica of Stan Mikita's Donuts. Feel free to take a selfie in a Wayne or Garth wig at the public library, or check out a replica of the Campbell family basement at the community college. Or maybe just enjoy any of the dozens of contests, events and celebrations the town is hosting in honor of the 25th anniversary of the movie Wayne's World.

For a comedy that...

The Breakfast Club, Rushmore, The Princess Bride and legendary punk documentary The Decline of Western Civilization are among the 25 films that have been inducted into the National Film Registry, the Library of Congress announced Wednesday.

Disney's The Lion King, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds are also in the Class of 2016's inductees in the registry, which showcases "the range and diversity of American film heritage to increase awareness for its preservation."

The oldest film to be inducted in the Class of 2016 is 1903's Life of an American Fireman,...

25 movies have been added to the National Film Registry, bringing the total number of cinematic works officially recognized by the Library of Congress to 700. Among the new additions are “The Birds,” “The Lion King,” “Point Blank” and “Rushmore” — the first of Wes Anderson’s films to be included.

In order to be so honored, a film must be at least 10 years old and deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the National Film Preservation Board. Full list below.

Read More: ‘Ghostbusters,’ ‘L.A. Confidential,’ ‘Shawshank Redemption,’ ‘Top Gun’ & More Enter The National Film Registry

“The Atomic Cafe” (1982)

“Ball of Fire” (1941)

“The Beau Brummels” (1928)

“The Birds” (1963)

“Blackboard Jungle” (1955)

“The Breakfast Club” (1985)

“The Decline of Western Civilization” (1981)

“East of Eden” (1955)

“Funny Girl” (1968)

“Life of an American Fireman” (1903)

“The Lion King” (1994)

“Lost Horizon” (1937)

“Musketeers of Pig Alley” (1912)

Read More: ‘Symbiopsychotaxiplasm,’ ‘Portrait of Jason,’ ‘Imitation of Life’ Among New Additions to National Film Registry...

Paris Is Burning is serving some historical landmark realness this morning, as the Library of Congress has announced that the iconic drag documentary is one of 25 films chosen for induction into its National Film Registry for 2016. The Registry’s mission is is to preserve films that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant, which this year means multiple generations of youth in revolt as well as the usual Old Hollywood masterworks and essential historical documents of early silent filmmaking.

One of the more unexpected entries this year is also a documentary: future Wayne’s World and Suburbia director Penelope Spheeris’ 1981 film The Decline Of Western Civilization, a vital documentary on the punk scene in Los Angeles in the early ‘80s. Long condemned to bootleg obscurity thanks to the ever-complex problem of music rights, the film received its first official DVD and Blu-ray release just last year. In the ...

'Play Misty for Me': Rabid fan Jessica Walter makes life difficult for disc jockey Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood, 'Harry Potter' and 'The Decline of Western Civilization': Packard Campus movies Movies set in the world of music and/or radio are among the April 2016 highlights at the Library of Congress' Packard Campus Theater in Culpeper, Virginia. Packard Campus Recorded Sound Curator Matt Barton selected the documentaries and narrative features in this particular program, which, according to the Theater's press release, includes “several rarely projected films in original release prints from the Library's holdings.” Radio/music titles include: Clint Eastwood's 1971 feature film directorial debut, the thriller Play Misty for Me, starring Jessica Walter as a woman obsessed with both a late night disc jockey (Eastwood) and the song “Misty,” jazzily played by Errol Garner at the piano. Also in the cast: Donna Mills, frequent Eastwood director Don Siegel (Dirty Harry,...

The formidable Penelope Spheeris penetrates L.A.'s punk and glam rock scenes, connecting with surly malcontents that would greet a normal docu with flipped fingers and snarled four-letter words. The result is much more than a collection of rare music performances. Things are as loud, as profane and as twisted as ever.   The Decline of Western Civilization + The Decline of Western Civilization Part II The Metal Years Blu-ray Shout! Factory Color Street Date March 4, 2016 Sold separately 19.98 Written and Directed by Penelope Spheeris

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Unless my memory is completely fried, I remember Penelope Spheeris as a busy Ta in the film department at UCLA around 1974-'75. The upstairs editing area had but one pay telephone, and she was on it constantly, making deals. The active and connected Ms. Spheeris was even then something of a celebrity around the department. Years later her connections with various L.A.

How would you program this year's newest, most interesting films into double features with movies of the past you saw in 2015?Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2015—in theatres or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2015 to create a unique double feature.All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2015 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Film Society of Lincoln Center

To commemorate her passing, free screenings of Chantal Akerman‘s Jeanne Dielman (on 35mm) and her self-portrait Chantal Akerman by Chantal Akerman will screen for free on Friday.

Hou Hsiao-hsien‘s The Boys from Fengkuei will play on Friday night, with Hou making an appearance.

Museum of the Moving...

Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows that I bookmark and share a ton of links everyday. Over the past few years I’ve tried to get a regular link post series going here on the site, but inevitably I just fall back to sharing Criterion-related links directly on our Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr pages.

I’ve recently caught the “I should start a link post again” bug, and here we are. We’ll see how long I can keep this going again.

Feel free to email me, or tweet at me, if you have links that you think I should bookmark or include in my daily round-up here on the site.

Articles

Our friend Jamie S. Rich has been taking time out of his busy comic book editing schedule to start posting to his Criterion Confessions blog again lately. His latest entry looks at The X From Outer Space,...

She made her millions as the director of Wayne’s World and The Beverly Hillbillies, but the film-maker would rather be remembered for her riot-causing punk series The Decline of Western Civilization

Penelope Spheeris’s home, near Laurel Canyon in the Hollywood Hills, doesn’t look like it belongs to a punk icon. It’s airy and minimalist, with grey tiled floor and white carpet. We’re sitting on white sofas in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, and three small dogs are running around.

Spheeris bought the place in 1974, then completely rebuilt it in the 90s with the money she made from directing a string of box-office-friendly comedies. But she’s in no mood to reminisce about the likes of Wayne’s World, The Beverly Hillbillies or Little Rascals. “The only movies I could get released were movies that I basically just sold out on and took the money,” she sighs.

Fans of '70s punk and '80s heavy metal have long held Penelope Spheeris' "The Decline of Western Civilization" movies as sacred texts. The first ‘Decline,’ released in 1981, is a vital document of the Los Angles punk scene, with performances by X, the Germs, the Circle Jerks, Fear and Black Flag. The music in ‘Part II: The Metal Years’ is less enduring, but the portrait of striving metalheads bent on success has a striking poignancy: You may not remember W.A.S.P.'s Spandex-clad hair metal, but you'll never forget Spheeris' interview with guitarist Chris Holmes, who floats drunkenly in a pool and douses himself in vodka while his elderly mother looks on blankly from the sidelines. The previously rare ‘Decline III’ takes that anthropological approach to the next level, focusing on L.A. gutter punks who beg for change by day and rock out by night.

This week on Off The Shelf, Ryan is joined by Brian Saur to take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for the week of June 30th, 2015, and chat about some follow-up and home video news.

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Episode Links & Notes Top 5 Of 2015 (So Far)

Brian

5. Wolfen (Warner Archive)

4. River’s Edge (Kl Studio Classics)

3. Sullivan’s Travels (Criterion)

2. Blood and Black Lace (Arrow)

1. Breaking Away (Twilight Time)

Honorable: Thunderbirds, The Fisher King, Zardoz, Last Embrace, Return to Oz.

Ryan

5. 3-D Rarities (Flicker Alley)

4. Journey To The Center Of The Earth Re-issue (Twilight Time)

3. Thunderbirds (Shout! Factory)

2. Classics From The Van Beuren Studio (Thunderbean Animation)

1. Watership Down (Criterion Collection)

Honorable mentions: Spirited Away, The Train (Arrow), Man With A Movie Camera

News Saturn Awards: Winners Announced New Releases 1990: The Bronx Warriors Come Fly with Me The Decline Of Western Civilization Collection Escape From the Bronx...

For decades, there were only two ways to watch "The Decline of Western Civilization": buy a bootleg or download it online. Both are illegal. For a movie about the underground punk scene, the film's nearly impossible-to-find status contributed to its cult appeal. Like hunting down a rare vinyl record or an out-of-print fanzine, scoring a copy of the 1981 documentary required a rabid degree of dedication in exchange for street cred. Read More: Sorry, Ladies: Study on Women in Film and Television Confirms the Worst Penelope Spheeris, the film's director, has a less romantic way of explaining the movie's thriving underground market: theft. "You know that feeling you get in your stomach that's like this fluttery kind of fear?" she told Indiewire recently, describing the sensation that would wash over her when she'd stumble across a bootleg copy of "The Decline of Western Civilization," including the 1988 and 1998 sequels of the same name.

A holy grail for both cinephiles and rock and roll enthusiasts finally arrives on DVD this week in the form of Shout Factory’s superbly assembled The Decline of Western Civilization boxed set. The first two Decline films are essential artifacts of the late ’70s punk rock movement and the ’80s metal scene in Los Angeles; the third, made in the ’90s, is a sober chronicle of Hollywood’s gutter punks, homeless kids tossed aside by “polite” society. All three movies contain terrific concert footage of seminal punk and metal bands (including Fear, the Circle Jerks, and Faster Pussycat, among many others) […]...

A holy grail for both cinephiles and rock and roll enthusiasts finally arrives on DVD this week in the form of Shout Factory’s superbly assembled The Decline of Western Civilization boxed set. The first two Decline films are essential artifacts of the late ’70s punk rock movement and the ’80s metal scene in Los Angeles; the third, made in the ’90s, is a sober chronicle of Hollywood’s gutter punks, homeless kids tossed aside by “polite” society. All three movies contain terrific concert footage of seminal punk and metal bands (including Fear, the Circle Jerks, and Faster Pussycat, among many others) […]...

In addition to getting their Blu-ray horror and sci-fi fix from Shout! Factory's booth #4118 at this year's Comic-Con, fans can also experience exciting future Scream Factory title announcements at the "Inside Look" panel taking place Friday, July 10th at 7:30pm in Room 24Abc:

Press Release: "Now a mainstay at San Diego Comic-Con International, Shout! Factory returns to the convention in 2015 with a dynamic line-up sure to delight pop culture enthusiasts of all ages. Shout! Factory is a leading multi-platform entertainment company, and its Comic-Con offerings, which span its popular Shout! Factory, Shout! Kids and Scream Factory™ brands, are sure to please devoted fans of popular home entertainment properties, collectors and pop culture enthusiasts alike. This year, Shout! Factory unveils an exciting panel event, new home entertainment products, Comic-Con exclusives and engaging booth activities. Fans and attendees are invited to join in on the excitement at the Shout! Factory...

With Penelope Spheeris’s 1981 landmark The Decline of Western Civilization set for a long-overdue DVD release, what other music documentaries have dared to show more grit than glamour?

Alot of people must enjoy watching tawdry glamour and alienated youth. As soon as it was announced in March that Penelope Spheeris’s cult The Decline of Western Civilization trilogy would finally be released on DVD, it immediately entered the Amazon pre-order chart. They can’t all be musicians watching on the tour bus.

The three films certainly set a standard for realism and bleakness in rockumentary, probably only surpassed by the work of Lech Kowalski, chronicler of junkies and skinheads, whose grey Doa captured England in 1977, Year of Punk, and made the opening titles of The Office look like the colour sections of The Wizard of Oz. The original film follows La’s early punk scene, the second and most famous...

There's a scene in the original 1976 Heartworn Highways that's become a central heartbeat of the cult film that chronicled Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Steve Young, David Allan Coe and others as they lived, wrote music and filled their lungs with smoke and song in Nashville, Tennessee. Van Zandt is sitting in his wood-paneled kitchen in a denim shirt, plucking "Waiting Around to Die" on a cherry red guitar. His girlfriend sways, but "Uncle" Seymour Washington, a retired blacksmith born to former slaves, just nods as his eyes, circled by tree-rings of wrinkles,...

The genial, Instagram-loving Sir Patrick Stewart isn’t the first actor one might think of for a “ murderous skinhead” part, but his cranium does come fit for the job. Broad Green Pictures (Bgp) announced late Tuesday that the “X-Men” and “Star Trek” actor has joined the cast of “Green Room,” the next thriller from “Blue Ruin” writer-director Jeremy Sauliner (there’s a pattern there, I just can’t put my finger on it…). Currently shooting in Portland, Oregon, the film stars Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots and Alia Shawkat star as a punk rock band cornered into a secluded venue after witnessing a horrific act of violence perpetrated by white supremacists. As the gang attempts to eliminate all witnesses, the trio are forced to fight for their lives. Think “The Decline of Western Civilization” meets “Straw Dogs.” Stewart will play the leader of the bloodthirsty band of haters. Mark Webber, “Blue Ruin” star Macon Blair,...

On slate this month for screening events at AMPAS – A trilogy of documentaries tailor-made for fans of the L.A. music scene in the early 80’s and two of the most fascinating characters to come out of the “Kennedy’s Camelot” era in American History.

Penelope Spheeris’ Decline Of Western Civilization films (I, II, and III) are a great walk down memory lane for music fans that came of age during the early 80’s in Los Angeles. 1 and 3 cover the early days of punk rock and 2, “the metal years” is an eye-opening look into the hair-bands that were struggling to make it on the famed Sunset Strip.

Grey Gardens, you just have to see to believe. Funny, sad, hilarious and sometimes shocking, this classic Maysles Brothers film documents a branch of the Kennedy family tree most people don’t know even existed.

April Events

The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years

Friday,...

The 52nd annual Ann Arbor Film Festival will be a jam-packed experimental feature and short film screening event running for six days and nights, this time on March 25-30.

Opening Night will feature a reception and an after-party, and stuffed between those will be a block of nine short films, including new ones by Bryan Boyce, Michael Robinson, Jennifer Reeder and Martha Colburn, as well as a never-before-released work by the legendary Bruce Baillie called Little Girl in which Baillie captured scenes of natural beauty.

Special Events scattered throughout the festival include a retrospective of indie filmmaker Penelope Spheeris that will feature her rock ‘n’ roll-based work, including the original The Decline of Western Civilization, plus The Decline of Western Civilization Part III, her influential punk film Suburbia (screening twice) and a collection of short films.

There will also be several films and presentations by filmmaking scholar Thom Andersen, such...

Cocksucker Blues

USA, 1972

Directed by Robert Frank

Rock critics, like film critics, abhor a narrative vacuum. Blues begets R&B begets rock n’ roll, which begets the British Invasion, and from there, it’s a multi-pronged evolution into hard rock, glam, punk, and onwards into a million sundry subgenres. Each generation repels against their forbears and creates a new antithesis. The promising rise and the disastrous fall of whoever, precipitating the ascension of the next comers. The straight narrative throughline, complete with its obvious conclusions and waves of comforting familiarity, is the ultimate rock journalist catnip. It’s no surprise, then, that rock movies, whether narrative or documentary, straight or parodic, epic or intimate, tend towards the creation and upholding of rock and roll logic and mythos. Hell, Cameron Crowe made both a life and (most of) a career out of finding a place for himself in that mustiest of Rock Myth chronicles,...

E. B. White once wrote, “Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.” Analyzing trilogies seems to the same. The entire point is to enjoy them. Still, given the many sins to be found in film, there are worse things than movie trilogies but few have become more prominent or unavoidable. In terms of definitions, a trilogy only means three “individual” (animated, live-action, etc.) films are tied together which leaves a lot of room in seeing something as a trilogy.

Currently, negative reviews over trilogies highlight how easily and predictably they start off well but soon degenerate at a rapid pace. Then, too, there cases where once was good enough and added treatments are not welcome. David Lynch’s Dune thankfully has not become a trilogy though it sits there waiting to be given birth. In rare cases, yes, a trilogy may be badly called for.

I like to think that I know Everything about films, but even I have to confess that I had never heard of this film before, until recently. an unknown Richard Pryor film that most likely you, me or anyone else will ever see in their lifetime. I'm referring to the oddly titled Uncle Tom's Fairy Tales: The Movie for Homosexuals, which was made back in 1968, produced by and starring Pryor. The film was directed by a young student filmmaker, Penelope Spheeris, who later went on to be more known for her rock music documentaries such as The Decline of Western Civilization and later in the mid-90's directed a slew of Hollywood studio comedies such as Wayne's...