
PopGap #03 Recap: Punk Movies Month
Written by dorrk | 31 March 2015 |
A look back at the new Punk Movies in our repertoire
That's the end of Punk Movies month. While there were only a couple that cracked what I consider the cream-of-the-crop, I'm happy to report that I really enjoyed more than half of the 21 movies on March's official PopGap watchlist, with only a few truly miserable failures. Here's how I rank the movies I watched this month:
Loved:
- The Tin Drum (1979)
- Control (2007)
- Get Crazy (1983)
- Breaking Glass (1980)
- The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)
Really liked:
- Smithereens (1982)
- SLC Punk (1999)
- Times Square (1980)
- Never Too Young to Die (1986)
- Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986)
- Dudes (1987)
Meh:
Disappointing:
Garbage:
What did I learn?
For some reason almost completely unconnected to my actual life experience, "punk movies" resonate with me in a unique way. This is probably largely nostalgia for the punk-drenched b-movies I grew up watching in the 1980s. Flipping through the great book Destroy All Movies: the Complete Guide to Punks on Film brings up at least one movie every couple of pages that I watched multiple times on cable as a teenager, or caught clips of on USA network's Night Flight. My own brief flirtation with punk fashion and music as a 14-year-old never materialized into a dedicated lifestyle, but these movies allow me to momentarily revisit it vicariously.
Obviously there are still a lot of "punk movies" I haven't seen. Here are some of the titles that were recommended to me that I did not include in this month's list:
- New Wave Hookers (1985)
- Tchao Pantin (1983, a.k.a. So Long, Stooge)
- Lunch Wagon (1981)
- They Eat Scum (1979)
- Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985)
- Savage Streets (1984)
- Gringo: Story of a Junkie (1985)
And the documentaries:
- Urgh: a Music War (1981)
- Another State of Mind (1984)
- D.O.A. (1980)
RANKING
Finally, here's how I'd assimilate this month's movies into the overall list of 47 movies I've seen that I consider part of the "punk movies" family (this month's Popgap movies are marked with ):
- Taxi Driver (1976)
- A Clockwork Orange (1971)
- The Road Warrior (1981)
- The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
- Suburbia (1983)
- The Tin Drum (1979)
- Over the Edge (1979)
- Repo Man (1984)
- Control (2007)
- Valley Girl (1983)
- We Are the Best! (2013)
- River's Edge (1986)
- Get Crazy (1983)
- Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1982)
- Breaking Glass (1980)
- The Runaways (2010)
- Smithereens (1982)
- American History X (1998)
- The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)
- SLC Punk (1999)
- Times Square (1980)
- This Is England (2006)
- Never Too Young to Die (1986)
- Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)
- Class of 1984 (1982)
- They Live (1988)
- Summer of Sam (1999)
- Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986)
- End of the Century: the Story of the Ramones (2004)
- New York Doll (2005)
- Dudes (1987)
- TerrorVision (1986)
- Mad Max (1979)
- Surf 2 (1984)
- Sid and Nancy (1986)
- Blade Runner (1982)
- Out of the Blue (1980)
- Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
- Pump up the Volume (1990)
- Hard Core Logo (1996)
- Du-beat-e-o (1984)
- Rude Boy (1980)
- Howling II: Stirba - Werewolf Bitch (1985)
- Tromeo and Juliet (1996)
- Blank Generation (1980)
- Liquid Sky (1983)
- Straight to Hell (1987)
I'll have a preview of April's movies in the next day or so.

Punk Movies
More info
Sources for this month's list:
The Destroy All Movies website
Den of Geek's 30 Must-See Punk Rock Movies
Village Voice's The 10 Best Punk Rock Movies
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