Hard Core Logo (1996)

Hard Core Logo

Hard Core Logo"Hard Core Logo" is the best rock band mockumentary since "This is Spinal Tap". It is a consistantly intriguing look at the comeback of a hard core punk band trying to make it big long after its heyday. The presence of Callum Keith Rennie, the Canadian actor who comes to us via England, serves to elevate the material and the acting. His style is natural and seamless. His calm belies a past history of violent behavior that he admits once ruled his on stage hard core life. There is a brilliantly subtle subtext, which I will not reveal. It causes a shock at the end that I will not spoil, but it will knock your socks off. Beware, there is a lot of loud punk rock music. I recommend it to movie fans, independent movie fans, as well as punk music fans. The acting will surprise you. Callum Keith Rennie studied for weeks in a crash course to make his guitar playing believable. Everything about this mockumentary is believable, which is the highest praise. October 24, 2008

A special two stars here

An evil movie about evil people
who make a mockery of music...
by it appears another set of evil people
with the motivation of putting down the other guys?!
"Who do they think they are?"
to paraphrase one of the "hit" songs
of this imaginary punk rock group.
If there is either wisdom or entertainment
in nasty guys putting down nasty guys,
it escapes me. This movie is really not much...
in dialog, acting, music production or
inspiration. Dirty business made plain
as dirt? May 2, 2008

This is spinal tap for the Punk fans.

Hugh Dillon from the Headstones and a tour of small venues in Canada prior to 1990... what more could you ask for in a "rockumentry". Watch it and be surprised at how good it really is. Not nearly as silly as Spinal Tap, but same idea on the surface. August 23, 2007

As many different shades of "brilliant" as there are.

Hard Core Logo (Bruce MacDonald, 1996)

When I finished watching Hard Core Logo, with its insanely brilliant final shot, I realized I'd seen a pretty good movie-- a little slow to get going, and definitely marketed wrong (comparing Hard Core Logo to This Is Spinal Tap is like comparing Shoah to Life Is Beautiful). Two days later, when I was still thinking about all the subtleties of the movie, it occurred to me that I'd seen what may be the most brilliant mockumentary ever created, a movie so true to the roots of the things it fictionalizes that it may well be truer, in a sense, than many of the "memoirs" we've seen in the recent past.

Hard Core Logo is the story of the [punk band of the same name], who reunite for a five-date tour after five years of separation-- vocalist Joe Dick (Hugh and the Headstones singer Hugh Dillon, recently of Assault on Precinct 13), guitarist Billy Tallent (Blade: Trinity's Callum Keith Rennie), bassist John Oxenberger (Pin...'s John Pyper-Ferguson), and drummer Pipefitter (Bernie Coulson, who despite a long and prolific career will probably best be remembered for a single guest spot on an episode of The X-Files) quickly find not only that the rigors of the road still suck, but that not everyone is just in it for the love of the game...

I wish I could enumerate all the things that make this such a wonderful movie. The problem is, I'm sure I haven't found them all yet. Just while sitting here typing this it occurred to me how dead-on the dichotomy between the filmmakers' attitude towards the band and the general public's attitude towards the band is; MacDonald comes at the project, initially, through a kind of hero-worship (and again, my mind just made the parallels between the MacDonald-Dick relationship and the Dick-Bucky Haight relationship as the film progresses. Amazing stuff.), while the general public, most of whom hadn't heard of the band before, certainly couldn't give a damn about the reunion tour. Been there, done that. MacDonald nails it.

The comparisons to Spinal Tap are unwarranted mainly because where Spinal Tap is a comedy, Hard Core Logo is a tragedy. There's never a point in Spinal Tap where you don't know that there's going to be some sort of "oh, you're HUGE in Germany!" deus ex machina. MacDonald never even gives us the option in Hard Core Logo; it's obvious that no matter how things end up, people are going to get hurt. The self-destructive Hard Core Logo are hell-bent on imploding, and MacDonald (whom, I should mention, is playing himself; yes, this film has "meta" writ large all over it, which is part of the fun) is just as intent on capturing the whole thing. What starts off seeing as though it may be a mean-spirited black comedy quickly turns to uncomfortable chuckling, and by halfway through you're wondering why you ever thought there was anything funny about it.

It's been another week since I finished watching it and framed that opening paragraph in my head, and the movie is still growing in my estimation. The more I think about it, the more I realize Hard Core Logo is an incredible achievement on every level. A stunning film. **** ½
October 17, 2006

Hardcore Logo

This movie ranks up there with the other punk rock movies: Romper Stomper, American History X, and SLC Punk. GET IT!!! It was obviously shot on a low budget and a few years back (1996), but that's the way the hardcore scene looked - low budget. Over-production would have killed this movie. It gave a good look at life in small town life and angry youth in North America as it would have looked in the 1980's before this sort of thing was commercialized and exploited by MTV, etc. It also shows some beautiful winter scenery of the more remote regions in western Canada. Enjoy!!!! May 24, 2006

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