PopGap #03 Recap: Punk Movies Month

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:

• Surf 2 (1984)
• Blade Runner (1982)
• Out of the Blue (1980)
• Hard Core Logo (1996)

Disappointing:

• Du-beat-e-o (1984)
• Rude Boy (1980)
• Tromeo and Juliet (1996)

Garbage:

• Blank Generation (1980)
• Liquid Sky (1983)
• Straight to Hell (1987)

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 ):

1. Taxi Driver (1976)
2. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
3. The Road Warrior (1981)
4. The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
5. Suburbia (1983)
6. The Tin Drum (1979)
7. Over the Edge (1979)
8. Repo Man (1984)
9. Control (2007)
10. Valley Girl (1983)
11. We Are the Best! (2013)
12. River's Edge (1986)
13. Get Crazy (1983)
14. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1982)
15. Breaking Glass (1980)
16. The Runaways (2010)
17. Smithereens (1982)
18. American History X (1998)
19. The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)
20. SLC Punk (1999)
21. Times Square (1980)
22. This Is England (2006)
23. Never Too Young to Die (1986)
24. Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)
25. Class of 1984 (1982)
26. They Live (1988)
27. Summer of Sam (1999)
28. Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986)
29. End of the Century: the Story of the Ramones (2004)
30. New York Doll (2005)
31. Dudes (1987)
32. TerrorVision (1986)
33. Mad Max (1979)
34. Surf 2 (1984)
35. Sid and Nancy (1986)
36. Blade Runner (1982)
37. Out of the Blue (1980)
38. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
39. Pump up the Volume (1990)
40. Hard Core Logo (1996)
41. Du-beat-e-o (1984)
42. Rude Boy (1980)
43. Howling II: Stirba - Werewolf Bitch (1985)
44. Tromeo and Juliet (1996)
45. Blank Generation (1980)
46. Liquid Sky (1983)
47. Straight to Hell (1987)

 I'll have a preview of April's movies in the next day or so.