Dazed and Confused (1993): This Richard Linklater vehicle has a semblance of a plot revolving around a group of '70s stoners in Texas who are about to graduate from highschool. As with Slacker, there's a large cast of characters: you get to hang with the nerds, the jocks, the burnouts, wannabe freshmen. All in all, it's a great throwback not to the '70s but to the '80s teen flicks: lots of drinking, jokes about sex, anti-authoritarianism (all the grownups are villians), class warfare as a metaphor for class warfare. Plus the soundtrack totally rocks.
Grade: A-
The Decline of Western Civilization (1981): Penelope Spheeris' documentary of the L.A. punk scene circa 1980 isn't as fun as you might hope, because it relies too heavily on concert footage: for every thrilling band that tears'em apart like Black Flag and X, there are unspeakably lame, excruciating sequences spotlighting performances by nobodies such as Catholic Discipline (who are actually hilarious in their unintentional way -- "Barbie Sex Doll" has to rank as a Dr. Demento so-bad-it's-good classic) and Alice Bag. Worst of all are the Germs, who are so horrendously shitty (the drummer can't hold a beat, the guitar's out of tune, and Darby "the mike, Darby, the mike!" Crash gurgles in a completely unintelligible mumbling growl) that the spectacle holds an almost perverse fascination -- but not when the Germs sequence drags on for an unbearable fifteen minutes. Any patron of local music like myself has seen more than enough bad amateur bands to last a lifetime, but I have never, ever seen any band anywhere who are as incompetent as the Germs in this "filthy motion picture". I wish there was more social documentary -- the interviews with the street punks are illuminating, and if you want to know how long ago 1980 was, check out the scene with Black Flag in which Dez Cadena gives a tour of his walk-in church closet that he rents for $16 a month - in Los Angeles! X certainly seem like the most fun to hang out with, knocking back beers, tattoeing buddies, and making fun of ridiculous bible pamphlets like your trailer trash cousins having the time of their lives -- just look at those shit-eating grins they flash onstage, a welcome antidote to the negative violence of the rest of the punk scenesters. But it's Fear who steal the show, spending most of their set time trading homophobic insults with the audience -- the Spinal Tap of punk at last; I can't remember the last time I've laughed so hard.
Grade: B+
The Decline of Western Civilization, Pt. II: The Metal Years (1988): The bands in Spheeris' followup chronicling the mid-80s glam-metal L.A. scene are as hilariously clownish and clueless as Spinal Tap, only this isn't a made-up mockumentary, but a real-life documentary of real bands. It's hard to believe that people this stupid really exist, and unfortunately club owner Riki Rachtman used his appearance here to get a job hosting MTV's "Headbanger's Ball," where they used to show this movie late at night when they got tired of playing videos. The music is lame and cheesy, making for the fact that none of these up-and-coming L.A. metal bands ever made it to the big time very understandable (exception: Faster Pussycat). In sum, one of the funniest videos I've ever rented, and one to show your grandkids for "You think you've got it tough? Look at the crap we had to put up with in the '80s!" Classic sequences include Ozzy Osbourne pouring orange juice (which has now entered legend), Chris Holmes of W.A.S.P. getting drunk in his pool while his Mom sits by, and the members of Odin cavorting with groupies in a hot tub (the look on one girl's face that asks, "How did I end up with this loser?" is priceless).
Grade: A-