with Hugh Dillon, Callum Keith Rennie, Bernie Coulson, John Pyper-Ferguson, Julian Richings.
Written by Noel S. Baker
Directed by Bruce McDonald
Written by Michael Turner
(Cowboy Booking/Rolling Thunder)
by Jody Boyns
It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen a film as uncompromisingly truistic as Bruce McDonald’s Hard Core Logo. It’s a mock documentary that skillfully mixes drunken onstage vim and vigor (and spit) with drug-induced offstage antics, not to mention a punk soundtrack with the chops necessary to send fans into a state of Nirvana (whoops, I guess I should’ve used euphoria there).
The story picks up with Hard Core Logo, the Western Canadian band of the title, reforming in 1997 to do a benefit show for their Iggy Poppish hero Bucky Haight (pronounced Hate, played by Julian Richings), who has been shot recently and had to have either one or both legs amputated (depending on which band member you believe). A little back history on the band shows that they formed in 1978, peaked a few years later and then, like many of their peers, burnt out and disbanded some 12 years later. The band is fronted by the mohawked nihilist Joe Dick (Hugh Dillon, who resembles a cross between Joe Strummer and Bruce Willis) and playing pretty boy Mick Jones to his Joe Strummer is guitar whiz Billy Tallent (Callum Keith Rennie, who bears a striking resemblance to the Clash’s Paul Simonon). Rounding out the band are the lovable but boorish drummer Pipefitter (Bernie Coulson) and the stuttering, manic depressive, lithium-popping bassist John Oxenberger (John Pyper-Ferguson). The reunion show in Vancouver goes so well that the boys decide to embark on a seven-city comeback tour that will mostly take them through the hinterlands of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The Fargoesque scenes of snow in every direction almost add another character to the story here. Rifts start before the tour gets underway as Billy is a signature away from strumming with the hot new band of the moment, Jenifur (the funniest aspect of Billy’s possible band change comes in the form of the Poppy Family’s smarmy “Which Way You Goin’, Billy?” which blares from the juke boxes of every crappy diner they enter). This irks Joe to no end because he’d consider Billy a “sellout” if he were to join another band. Billy’s got the talent to go further and maybe that’s why he’s a little more realistic as to his place in the music biz. Joe, the neverending teenager, would rather take his “eff authority” credo to the grave with him than break up the band. Their messed up tour, complete with venues that have had their operating licenses suspended and an acid-tripping reunion with the remarkably two-footed Bucky Haight, (as Joe said, “Hey, it’s the only way Billy would go for the reunion gig”), swerves out of control almost as much as their decrepit tour bus. The final concert performance and ensuing fireworks are scenes that viewers will no doubt remember for a long time to come.
While many people liken this movie to Rob Reiner’s satirical This Is Spinal Tap, a closer bond could probably be made with 1982’s Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains with Christine Lahti and Laura Dern, in which a young punk rock priestess (Diane Lane) refuses to sell or put out. The punk theme could’ve also swayed me towards the latter picture. I also didn’t remember as much interaction between Nigel Tufnel et al and the people that were filming them in Spinal Tap. Here, director McDonald is referred to as Bruce by the band and they yell at him when they think he shouldn’t be filming and duly reward him with an LSD tablet during the visit to Bucky Haight’s retreat. He also serves as a catalyst for the final scenes when he breaks the news to Joe about Billy’s impending departure to Jenifur but never does he seem to muddle the mix. Musically, the film is a treat with original tunes by the band (done by Swamp Baby with Dillon on vocals) including the Bo Donaldson anti-theme “Who the Hell Do You Think You Are,” “Rock and Roll is Fat and Ugly,” and the all-too-prophetic “Something’s Gonna Die Tonight” (sort of akin to the Clash’s “Somebody Got Murdered”), not to mention a cover of the Dead Boys’ classic “Sonic Reducer,” snippets of songs by Stiff Little Fingers and the Ramones, as well as cameos by Flash Bastard, Lick the Pole, Modernettes, D.O.A., and Joey Ramone. The deft touch McDonald uses to make all this seem legit, and standout performances from the band members make this quite possibly the best movie of its kind ever made.