what is the best (scripted) punk movie

great poll. skipping repo man to vote for josie and the pussycats

Acknowledging Repo Man as a major blindspot, I'm going with Rock n' Roll High School over Liquid Sky.

oh god tank girl

Green Room is probably best movie on here although I sort of hesitate to call it a punk film so I’m going for We Are The Best! which equally albeit differently is wonderful and seems more on point. Out Of The Blue IIRC is quite good as well but it’s been a decade and a half.

lmao I included Josie just for you brad

this poll was inspired by the Lightbox holding a free screening of Hard Core Logo today

Expected I would just be voting Repo Man but actually, it's a tight contest between that, the two John Waters movies, Return of the Living Dead, Summer of Sam, and Surf Nazis Must Die.

shouts out to valley girl too

Impossible not to vote for Liquid Sky in any poll it's on, so

Love all of the horror/horror-ish ones (RotLD, Nukem High, Green Room) but they feel out of place here. As does Rock n' Roll High School (a masterpiece).

Straight to Hell is so bad. Hard to believe that's how Cox chose to follow up his other two films on this list.

I haven't seen it in a minute but I might go with SLC Punk. Definitely Lillard's best non-Twin Peaks performance.

I watched Tank Girl just the other day, deary me.

Wish I'd looked at this list properly before voting though

Interesting idea for a poll, thanks

great poll. skipping repo man to vote for josie and the pussycats

― flamenco blorf (BradNelson), Sunday, July 1, 2018 9:34 AM (one hour ago)

otm

(RotLD, Nukem High, Green Room) but they feel out of place here. As does Rock n' Roll High School (a masterpiece).

I definitely hesitated esp with RotLD, but Green Room unquestionably belongs on any list of great punk movies.

Of the movies I've seen on this list and have a decent recollection of, I'd rank em

Hard Core Logo > Female Trouble > Green Room > We are the Best! > Bad Boy Bubby > Ex Drummer > Faulous Stains > Repo Man > RotLD > Wild Zero > The Runaways > Control >>>>>> subUrbia and Tapeheads

yeah i think green room absolutely makes sense here

Feels like a punk movie should be a shitty yet in some way compelling time capsule with roles and cameos by a number of musicians and not-yet-famous actors. And normally set in some kind of punk scene. (Jubilee should be here)

Jubilee would absolutely have been included if I'd clocked that it was scripted. (shamefully I haven't seen any Jarman beyond a few of his videos)

Co-signing that this is a great poll idea, some great films here. Tempted to go for return of the living dead

I guess radio-on is post-punk and fassbinder is proto-punk

this book is u & k:

https://d19vkqie08zn8u.cloudfront.net/image/2010/11/destroy-all-movies-the-complete-guide-to-punks-on-film-0.jpg

Burst City is truly something else, hard to not vote repo man but I’m tempted.

No 'Great Rock n Roll Swindle'? It's years since I saw it so I suspect it hasn't dated well, but as capturing lightning in a bottle I'd guess it does the job.

Yep, I fucked up there.

Female Trouble stands apart from these as a crazed tour de force, obv an influence on punk rather than inspired by it.

Otherwise I like Times Square the best, it's got heart and is very affecting.. as is the scrappy and bittersweet Smithereens.

jfc vote for repo man you weenies

My buddy Care failure is the star of hardcore logo 2.
Never seen it tho

I confess I still have not seen HCL2. McDonald's recent films that I've seen have left me cold (with the exception of the great Pontypool)

I've not seen Repo Man - maybe I'll watch it if you all watch Liquid Sky

Done

Voted, didn't agonize over "scripted."

lj watch repo man

Well, "Swindle" wasn't scripted much, but so was(nt) "Rude Boy" so that should have been there if so.

Anyway, voted "Rock and roll high school" bcaus Amber and Alice

Inexplicably haven’t seen Repo Man yet. So I went with The Fabulous Stains, despite the fact that Summer Of Sam has some of the best uses of Who songs in a film (as it happens, Spike Lee is a Who fanatic).

Straight To Hell is a classic. Getting a deluxe Blu-Ray next month, too.

Ranking the ones I've seen:

Repo Man
Straight to Hell
We Are the Best!
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains
Green Room
Return of the Living Dead
Josie and the Pussycats
Sid and Nancy
Wassup Rockers
SLC Punk
Liquid Sky
Tapeheads
Valley Girl
Suburbia
Tank Girl
Rock n’ Roll High School
Class of Nuke ‘Em High
Surf Nazis Must Die
Dudes
The Runaways
Summer of Sam
Control

dont vote against repo man until you’ve seen it i begging u

Lol I just bought Bad Boy Bubby the other week

Fabulous Stains and We Are the Best! are genuine contenders but i gotta go with Repo Man.

vanilla sky

I was torn between Repo Man and SLC Punk until I saw Josie & the Pussycats made the list. The true punk vote, because it’s all about killing pop stars iirc?

Josie not the true punk vote because it sucks (sorry).

yeah, their previous film got shredded by studio censors and Josie was still a massive disappointment afterward

Back Door Lover rules though

Times Square and it ain't even close

Fabulous Stains isn't a *great* movie but the tunes are fun and it's wild to see super-young Laura Dern, Diane Lane, and Ray Winstone

And Black Randy

I'm going with Valley Girl, even though there's nothing much punk about the Plimsouls and the best part of the soundtrack is Sparks. Otherwise would've been Repo Man. Also love We Are the Best and special interest in Brothers of the Head, where the punk music was written by Clive Langer and is great.

I haven't seen nearly enough of these to be qualified to vote, but I voted for We Are the Best! anyway because I love that movie.

Wtf @ all you the non-repo man viewers y’all are in for a treat

And Black Randy

I'm not sure it fits here (and i like ALOT of these) but it's an all-time favorite for me....Desperate Living!

i love repo man and i've seen it a couple of times but not in a while so refresh my memory ... how is it a "punk movie"? just because of the soundtrack?

lots of great movies on here, i voted for fabulous stains but rnr high school and we are the best! made it tough

i guess estevez starts out the movie as a punk ... there just doesn't seem to be much punk content in repo man, at least not that i can remember

well, the Circle Jerks are in it

repo man is punk as hell

I've only seen maybe ten of these...For fun and nostalgia, Rock 'n' Roll High School; for a more Simon Frith/Greil Marcus-type meditation on "the meaning of punk" (sorry...), We Are the Best!.

repo man would still be punk if it had an all-pink-floyd soundtrack

C: Repo Man, Rock'n'roll High School, Green Room, Wild Zero

Liked when I was a teenager, might not now: Sid and Nancy

Quite liked the film but punk content a bit dodgy: Summer of Sam

I keep meaning to watch Terminal City Ricochet. Pretty sure I've got it torrented somewhere

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains, Green Room, Return of the Living Dead, Liquid Sky, Repo Man, Control. Wild Zero is nuts. Pussycats is awesome, and mmmmmaybe the only original song soundtrack from one of these movies I actually listen to.

The Repo Man soundtrack was a massively important document - Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies, the Circle Jerks, and the Plugz (among others) on an MCA release, which meant distribution to major record stores outside the import bins? I knew a ton of kids who learned about punk from that record. Plus, the Iggy Pop theme song is all-time. I was kind of amazed when I heard he busted it out for that recent tour with Josh Homme.

Yeah, Repo Man soundtrack was The Harder They Come of early '80s punk.

ppl itt who think josie and the pussycats is a bad movie are totally not jerkin'

It's possibly the only movie ever that has a teenage girl in the shower scene that has absolutely no sexual overtone at all!

Hopper's Out of the Blue is bonkers. Pretty good too IIRC. Remember discovering it via a list of Harmony Korine's favorite movies many years ago.

When I think ultimate punk movie, it's always Repo Man though.

Out of the Blue really is great. Probably the best movie about punks vs. hippies

Out of the Blue has two of my favorite tracking shots ever (bowling alley, and Linda Manz stomping straight through the cheerleaders practicing).

I think I'm the only person who actually likes Straight to Hell, a lot (well, me and Jeff McCloud). The disco wiener song is one of my favorite wtf moments in movies ("They sizzle! They grizzle!").

As I said above, I love Straight to Hell. I own the Anchor Bay DVD and am gonna upgrade to the Blu-Ray when Kino Lorber puts it out in August.

Linda Manz has the greatest accent

24 Hour Party People arguably belongs here for its detour into that Manchester Sex Pistols show.

Kinda Sorta* Missing Option

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8e/aa/1c/8eaa1c43edd95d954271b6ef640446ad.jpg

*Because the soundtrack isn't as Punk as I remembered--only one Ramones song!

After Hours could slip in there.

Def postpunk that and awez.

I've seen most of these and there is no wrong answer. I voted for the Spheeris Suburbia - dumb and melodramatic, but it actually did feel like it was filmed around the suburban gutterpunk scene around Pomona

24 Hour Party People arguably belongs here for its detour into that Manchester Sex Pistols show.

I def considered it!

I should rewatch this. Really loved it when it was newish, but it's been a while. I bet my son would like it because it has music history nerd appeal.

Don't know why John's movies are included but voted for Desperate Living. Dig this poll though.

Hopefully that one gets reissued by Criterion like Multiple Maniacs & Female Trouble. Lost my copy years ago.

Kind of makes sense as proto-punk documents, but I was also wondering about their inclusion.

well also why no Pink Flamingos? they are certainly 'punk' in their subversiveness, the way they were made, the people that made them (they all, like punks, hated hippies), a lot of their audience. they just have nothing to do with punk music. which afaic doesn't really matter, I fuck with this poll

I instituted an arbitrary two-films-per-director limit, which I *think* I stuck to lol

many xxposts Repo Man is punk in the truest sense of the word. not just music!

it’s a no-budget dystopian in-joke that does not care if anyone likes it except the people making it. there is nothing more punk than that imo.

Repo Man

Or

RotLD

If I was thinking, I'd have included this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_Story_(film)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185417/

irish punk movie from '97. its only ok though tbh

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I'd never seen Suburbia, great trash cinema!

We Are the Best! and Female Trouble both have hilarious scripts.

Saw 19 or 20 of these... I've never seen SubUrbia, but i did see the first production of the Eric Bogosian play it's based on.

Linda Manz has the greatest accent

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

hell yeah

(dis)honourable mention for Near Dark (1987)

very happy with these results, esp being the sole HCL voter, which feels right

VINDICATED

Thx to simon and props to vg, good thread

R&RHS needed an extra vote, joint third is wrong. Joint second would be fair.

After a second viewing of 20th Century Women (I waited a full year, because I didn't want to be disappointed), I think I'd pick that as the greatest punk movie ever. That's not all it is, but that part of it is perfect.

"dudes" is on hulu right now (along with "suburbia" and "rock n roll high school") and i watched the first 30 minutes in the gym. it's a mish-mash tonally, jon cryer as a punk bent on revenge is laughable, and flea goes overboard with the manic energy, but it's a fun movie and i plan on watching the rest.

it isn't particularly punk, even the soundtrack is mostly metal bands. the song "lost highway" by little kings is used during the opening credits. i'd never heard of little kings before so i looked them up and gore verbinski was in the band? they also had one of the earliest releases on epitaph records, in 1989.

oh i also saw "rock n roll high school" in the theater a couple of weeks ago. i used to own it on vhs so i'd probably seen it like 15 times but not since the early 2000s. it's a great movie to see with a big audience.

Would The Warriors not count as a punk movie? I guess the soundtrack disqualifies it but the look and feel is there.

I can't believe I didn't make my perennial reference to "Down And Out With The Dolls" in this thread, it's worth a watch