The last couple posts about my journey to being an artist through inspiration has covered how music affected me. So this time I want to jump ahead a bit and cover something that combined both music and my favorite thing on the planet.... films.
It's been about 7 years since, what could be consider as my directorial debut The Enemies You Keep. I will make an official post about this project as there is a lot to tell. Since my team made that project, the most common question I get asked is, "What is your favorite film?" Now, this is probably the most complex question anyone could ask a filmmaker; well, a filmmaker who cares anyway. Most people who know me might describe my opinion on film and music as snobby, pretentious, hard lined, etc. And they have damn good reason, I don't like many films, my standards are high, and I expect people to take this craft seriously. It would be easy enough for me to say Requiem For Dream is my favorite film. And it nearly is, it hits every mark of perfection to me in terms of master-craftsmanship. But when I tell people my favorite film they tend to be taken-a-back. It is SLC Punk!, and for many reasons. This film can be studied over and over on any academic level and you will be surprised to learn that it is film perfection. I get a lot of uneducated responses when I bring this up, people tend to watch movies one time and make some ridiculous opinion on it. With SLC Punk! most filmmakers only have watched it once. But this film has a huge cult-ish following. Even stating that you are TOO PUNK for that movie has a following lol. But in reality, stepping back from cultism and fandom to get a larger picture of the film you can see that it is an opus, a journal, a guidebook to learn film making, and truly a masterpiece.
My Discovery
SLC Punk! came out in 1998 hitting no theaters near me. I vaguely recall seeing a trailer or teaser for this film. Basically the box office release came and went without me knowing anything about it. Naturally, it came out on VHS (DVD's we'rent all that popular around Sidney, OH then) and this was my bedrock to watching films. Going to the theater was always some sort of hassle. But I lived in a small town and watching movies was my only real pastime. SLC Punk! hit the New Rentals and it wasn't even a full thought before I was leaving with a copy. Punk rock music was dominating my listening pallet at the time, honestly it always had, but being punk was sort of everything to me. Now, this is where people make their first major mistake in understanding this film. They tend to think SLC Punk! is a film defining what it is to be "Punk." Well, it is anything but that and I will cover what I mean below. Anyways, I held on to that copy of SLC Punk! into obscene overdue fees territory. I eventually paid the fees, returned it and bought my own copy. Which is the only thing I have managed to hold on to as a memento from my youth. Watching that film for the first time was an undefinable experience. Making films as a career was already the secret apple-of-my-eye and I had no understanding of how to make this happen. Watching SLC Punk! was simply a deep relation to how I wanted to make films and the kind of films I wanted to watch. It spoke directly to me. I too was a punk kid sort of from the suburbs, like the suburbs of a very small city, but more into the country. Either way, I felt out of place to say the least. Even the few weird kids I knew were only into whatever "metal" they called on the radio there, Limp Bizkit, Korn (with a backwards R, so original), all that shit. It did not appeal to me. I loved some good ol' dirty punk and the rarer the better. The scene where Heroin Bob introduces Steve-O to punk for the first time was the first time I saw someone personify that "first time I heard Punk" feeling into what could not be put into words. Everything in that scene was perfection, the lighting, the angles chosen, and the acting was exact. I was always the "Bob" in that situation, trying to expose my friends to a better world of music. For the record, Rush truly is "...talented and they rock and all. But they're not the only band out there." Now, around the age of 17 I loved SLC Punk! because it was a "cool" movie. I knew that, technically, it stands out, the acting is superb, the story is rich and robust, and mostly the directing was phenomenal. I could relate to the core feeling of "being a punk kid out of place" thing. But I had no idea that this movie was tapping into the ether of what is every fringer/hippie/punk/etc's journey. Almost anyone can point to every character in that movie and say, "I know that guy" or at least a subtle version of them. Even the experiences they go through happened to a lot of us on a literal level or a figurative level.
The Story (Spoilers ahead)
SLC Punk!, if you don't know, follows the story of Steve-O during his "coming of age" period. Which was for him and his best friend Heroin Bob (who hates needles man!) had just finished their undergraduate degree at the local collage in Salt Lake City Utah. Right at the beginning, the film tells you that these guys should have had the next part of their life figured out, or their coming of age period had already came and went. However, they we're more confused about the future than ever and chose to "waist their highly educated minds on nothing". This is the most prevalent topic of all throughout the film coming to a climax with the meeting of Bob's father. Who was a basically feral from years of fringe thinking, isolation from reality, and most important, a lack of direction or future decisions. Right near the end of the film there is the scene where Steve-O goes to his friends house where they discuss Order vs Chaos leading to a point where someone at the party attempts to summon The Dark Lord. Only to prove religion is a lie. This is the finest bullet point in the story's meaning. Where Steve-O has to come to terms with the fact that his friend is changing, people are leaving, he can't even defend the idea of absolute freedom aka chaos, and religion is fake. In this metaphor religion itself is the Punk Identity as it is just another form of religion and maybe not a "way-of-life" after-all. In the Bad Trip scene Steve-O tried to relish in chaos and destruction but only becomes overwhelmed by it's madness and his mind begins spiraling out of control. Ultimately Steve-O meets someone he falls in love with who challenges his very existence signaling he is open to the idea of order. Throughout the film Steve-O is constantly presented with reasons why playing a role in society has value and order is just the way life goes. Even stating many times that "things are the way they are" in the tune of a variety of metaphors. Then, devastation, Heroin Bob's death. A lot people who haven't even seen the movie have heard about this scene. It is among the greatest death scenes in film history and that could be my biased talking. But really, I can't think of any that punches you mid gut and watches you with some sick pleasure the way Bob's death does. It hurts because of all the things you thought might happen, that was not one. This is when Steve-O's entire identity dies, all the monologues and credo's of honor, loyalty, dedication truly meant nothing. In a way chaos won, chaos taught Steve-O that as much as you want to embrace it, it has not interest in your embrace. In the end Steve-O decides to go to Harvard as his Dad had hoped, accepting order as form of chaos. While most people see a fun film with rad scenes and a surprising ending. I see a deeply meaningful film that has pinpoints we can all relate to with characters who represent those around us.
The Direction
The late 90's were probably the last golden age of Hollywood film. We had bangers dropping left and right, Pulp Fiction, Fargo, Fight Club, and the coming-of-age stories were not the simple directionless garbage we have today. James Merendino wrote and directed SLC Punk! as a semi-autobiographical story. Prior to making SLC he studied western philosophy in Rome and Los Angeles. He began working in Hollywood where he directed a handful of films leading to his $600,000 budget to make SLC Punk! One could say James was at the right place at the right time and luckily he handled it with a graceful film that has a story containing substance. Punk Rock was HOT again and Hollywood wanted to cash in... again. There had been so many attempts to make a Punk branded film and they always fell short. Had this opportunity been handed to anyone else it would have been another Rad just insert the Punk theme. But James had clearly been thinking about a chance like this and he did not waste it. There are very few films that do the main-character-does-the-narration thing that I like. But this one does such a great job of weaving the philosophy of the film into the story. Steve-O's monologues become a purposeful breaking of the fourth wall to let you know how exciting the ideology of Punk is to him, selling you on the idea while giving you points how not to be a "Poser!" But these eventually become questions as Steve-O becomes less enchanted by the idea of being in a tribe, even if it is punk. That's when the narration becomes the environment around you. Now you, the viewer, has to be as confused about the future as our narrator. Upon the first watch one might think that the film is trailing into unconnected side-stories. But when you go back and watch it again you realize that every sub-plot has a purpose to serve the main story. And everything leads you to that absolute gut-punch-death-scene. I have seen all of James Merenino's films and nothing was as air tight as his direction on this film.
The Execution
Well, technically, I can't go on for days about this film. Greg Littlewood did a great job as he is trained and practiced in the craft of Cinematography. It was edited by Esther P. Russell who, also, is well trained and practiced. Neither the editor or cinematographer made anything else that stood out to me. But I like to think a lot of these people really trusted James to craft a film he wanted to present. Because this is the best film in their portfolio and everything was done with some serious passion. Again, calling back to the flashback scene of young Steve-O and Bob is a great example of exemplary craftsmanship. The most note-able stylistic shot was the left-tracking still shots of the fight scene when the Rednecks crash the party. James himself told me they used a ridiculous amount of disposable cameras, all lined up next to each other to take one shot, then stitched it together in post. So, you can go tell your friends that The Matrix simply ripped off James Merendino, added cocaine and guns, then called themselves geniuses, if you want to one up them in a trivia-off. One of my favorite thing about the entire execution of the film was the intro credits. The Exploited's Sex and Violence plays over images of "album covers" stating the names of the actors and above-the-line crew. Most of the images are vectors from Microsoft Office 95 which is yet another important thing people overlook. Stevo-O most likely had a PC and what else would he do when bored? Use the nuclear mushroom cloud and skeletons. Even in the titles the filmmakers seem to be thinking about the characters . They embedded similar Easter Eggs all over the place.
Yeah, so what, I have talked to James Merendino a couple times.
Years after SLC Punk! had been released and I had already gone through my first serious girlfriend and began my artistic career, mostly in music. And came to terms with the fact that my life has so many SLC Punk! moments. One day I was surfing the web (90's reference) looking up things about SLC Punk! and I decided to start digging for SLC Punk! stuff on Facebook. I stumbled on a post by James Merendino about an SLC Punk! fan meet-up. I couldn't make it to NYC but I certainly tried. James made a fan group for the film and I joined. I got to see pictures from the meetup and I was mad jealous. So, I decided I would DM him and just say hi. I mentioned that his film meant a lot to me, I sent him a picture of my VHS copy still intact. He joked about the VHS and was very receptive to my introduction inviting me to another meet-up. Soon after he began his journey of raising money for SLC Punk 2 and of course I pledged a little under an anonymous name. I also sent him a message mentioning that I would love to be on the crew. He told me to check back in later, which I never did. I was up for a good handful of cinematography gigs myself and had was already committed to a project around the time he was crewing up. I was really salty when I found out he had cast MGK, whom I had recently interviewed and discovered was a true genius. It sounded like a good set to be on.It looked like they had a good time and hopefully made the film James wanted to make. I have to say that I have only seen the sequel a few times. While I enjoy it, of course it doesn't have a similar impact and the first one. Since then I have managed to keep up with the SLC Punk Pub facebook group (although it has been hard because I hate FB), now and then Jame and I will joke around on each others comments. I have always been afraid to really reach out and say "Yo, your film changed my life. I am a filmmaker because of you." as of yet. But I think I may have to as I make my exodus from Facebook. I have always had this dream working with him on a film, or even him producing one of mine. And you never know right? There is still time. I am not going to lie, every time he interacts with one of my posts I become a stupid little fanboy. So much to the point where my wife has to point out that James Merendino is my Man Crush.... she's right.
The Takeaway
SLC Punk! not only changed my because I relate to the story, it was the moment where I knew I could make films. I didn't know how it would happen but I knew I could do this. I wanted to take common themes in films and turn them upside down as SLC Punk did to the coming-of-genre and I really wanted to make a film that had passion on that level. My team is nearing the end of our featurette film Poster Grrl and it has notes of SLC Punk inspiration as Writer/Co-Director Chelsea Anders and I combed over this film while we made ours. I can't say a whole lot about our follow up project yet but it basically continues the feel of Poster Grrl while nodding SLC Punk!'s coming-of-age approach. We're in the very beginnings of Pre-Production and we hope Steemit will be an inviting platform to raise money and resources to accomplish this project. We'll be right back into SLC Punk! school and I will be forcing my cast and crew to watch it... yet again. But I still feel this film has a lot to teach us from execution to plot to philosophy to life-in-general. The film has rippled through my whole life even inspiring my production company Fringe Life Squad's tagline. I hope to make an impact on someone with my team's stories.
Ok, sorry this one was long, I doubt I will do that again haha. But this piece of art truly has affected my entire creative process. If you made it all the way to the end... wow! Look forward to our next film release and the production of our debut feature. We will be documenting the journey here on Steemit and we hope you can lend a hand.
Namaste,
XD
P.S. If you aren't in the MSP-Peace Abundance Liberty Discord server you are missing out. Head over there and make some friends. They are having a great time and supporting active members over there. Join us https://discord.gg/R3sQcR
SLC Punk is a great film. Definitely had a huge effect on me as well. Not as much musically, I'll leave that to Trainspotting or 24 Hour Party People, but in terms of attitude, DIY culture, and the whole concept of becoming an adult this was a big film for me. Didn't mind the sequel, but I don't think I was at a point of my life for it to be influential in the same way the first was. Good post!
So glad to meet more SLC Punk! fans.
Hey! Another filmmaker from Ohio! Glad to meet you! I've never watched this movie but I just put it on my list, and I'll watch your short too. :) Follow me if you want, I often write about filmmaking. Nice post, thanks for sharing!
O-H...
I just followed you. I am always excited to meet a fellow filmmaker/film lover!
Yeah! It's kind of hard to find each other on Steemit, but I'm slowly making connections. :)
Getting on Steem based Discord servers helps with that quite a bit.
One of my all time favorite movies. Right up there with Trainspotting. :)
I might have to cover Trainspotting. Because that film first made me NOT want to make films because it is so good I realized I ain't shit. Then it came around to inspire a lot of what I do now haha.
Great post, as I’m a a lifelong punk rocker and also a fan of the movie. But I have to give you some constructive criticism, being a writer myself.
Try formatting a bit better. Mainly, break it up into paragraphs. It would make reading a lot easier and more people might take the time to read the entire article/post.
Following...
Tbh, I didn't expect anyone to read it. I sort of started writing and let it flow.
That’s cool, too.
Well it is clear that you love SLC Punk, love is oozing out of every pore of this review. I haven't seen the movie and this makes me want to, so good job there I suppose. I really like the depth that you go into in your analysis and the way you relate the movie and its production to your own life. I am looking forward to reading more about your own projects.
Much love - Carl "Totally Not A Bot" Gnash / @carlgnash
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Wow thank you so much. That really means a lot.
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