A methodical thinkpiece rather than a hard-rocking musical tribute, "Punk's Not Dead" is a documentary for the thinking mosher.
Following on the heels of last year's "American Hardcore," which focused on the genre's anti-melodic, anti-establishment bohemian roots, director Susan Dynner's film spreads its net wide over the nearly three decades of punk's globe-spanning iconoclasm. She traces the growth of punk rock from the influential melodies of the Ramones to the unmitigated screaming of Black Flag, through the philosophical pontifications of Bad Religion and Social Distortion, on to the mass-culture breakthroughs of Green Day and The Offspring. She also delves into the current state of punk's inner conflict as it spreads through the very marketplace it claims to despise.
Drawing on an impressive haul of performance clips and interviews, Dynner mocks pop-infused punk bands with a montage of their onstage choreography. She shares the hardcore punkers' contention that popular groups such as Good Charlotte and My Chemical Romance further water down the genre with each platinum CD, but Dynner at least gives the members chances to speak for themselves and justify their street cred.
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Some of the gripes from punk fans who can't stand to hear their favorite music on the radio sound like jealous whining, although they do have a point. When a movement based on anti-authoritarian nihilism kowtows to big money, its onstage rage rings as hollow as an advertising jingle.
Corporate marketing's co-opting of punk looks, rhythms and attitude destroys the aesthetic while also granting it a resounding victory. If Chevy buys a Sum 41 song to hawk its minivans, is the punk movement winning by having the masses submit to the movement's worldview, or is a corporation just exploiting the flavor of the week to hawk some products? Such are the quandaries that swirl in the evolution of culture.
Dynner's conclusion seems to be that punk can't die because it's too many different things. It's 15-year-olds with green mohawks, safety pins in their ears pogoing onstage, shouting their angst. It's also middle-age rockers on a national tour raging against the very machine that spits out its paychecks as accountants and their preteen daughters bob their heads in the back row.
Punk lives on.
Punk's Not Dead
***
• Rated: Not rated.
• Director: Susan Dynner.
• Family call: Some vulgar language; not for kids.
• Running time: 93 minutes.
