THE OTHER F WORD On Demand - Father Knows Best → On Demand Weekly

THE OTHER F WORD On Demand - Father Knows BestFebruary 02, 2012

Oscilloscope Labs

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand and from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: THE OTHER F WORD (Oscilloscope Labs).

THE OTHER F WORD

By Chris Claro

Punk rock has always been about rebellion: sticking it to the man, telling society to go to hell, making sure that people just don’t understand, man! At its core, punk is anti-authoritarian, anti-government, anti-establishment, not the environs for such bourgeois pursuits as parenthood – “Father knows best? Father knows nothing!”

But even punks grow up, despite their attempts to the contrary. And no matter how hard they may have moshed or how badly they courted attention with choices in hair, ink, and accessories, punks age just as the rest of us do, and with age often comes the desire for something more fulfilling, something more than where to go eat after a gig. That something, as many of us squares know, is fatherhood.

THE OTHER F WORD, produced by Morgan Spurlock and directed by Andrea Blaugrund Nevins, is a rollicking doc about what happens when punks become parents. Though it sounds like the idea for a bad pilot starring Michael Rappaport and Jason Lee, THE OTHER F WORD is funny, insightful, and even touching, as it plays up the ironic dichotomy of post-40 punkers who need to maintain their bad-ass stage cred even though most of them are toast-making homebodies who find it increasingly difficult to go on tour.

Blaugrund traces the rise of punk in southern California, through the recollections of everyone from Flea to Art Alexakis to Mark Hoppus.

With its violent imagery and atonal collision of sounds and bodies, the angst and anger of the genre is palpable and it’s easy to see what drew alienated males with father issues to the movement. Virtually everyone of Blaugrund’s subjects talks of having some level of conflict with the male authority figures in his life and the reminiscences of the musicians gives the film a throbbing through line that emphasizes the desire they have to avoid their repeating fathers’ mistakes.

The threatening mien of most of the musicians – with every inch of many of them tatted and mohawked and pierced – is offset by the gentle, caring way they deal with their children. Jim Lindberg, lead singer of Pennywise, is shown patiently trying to explain to his three daughters why he can’t take more than one Barbie doll on tour with him – right before he packs his nose-hair clippers and Just for Men. Seeing Alexakis go from stage diving to chanting “The Wheels on the Bus” as he drives his daughter to school or watching Rancid’s Lars Fredriksen clear a playground while he pushes his son on a swing humanize the musicians and make THE OTHER F WORD effective and entertaining.

A fast-paced look at how outsiders try to maintain their status even as they adopt mainstream values,

THE OTHER F WORD is a both a thrashing good time

and a surprisingly astute study of youth gone right.

Crank it up to 11 and check it out.

- Chris Claro

Chris
Chris Claro is a contributing writer to On Demand Weekly. He is a former Director of Promotion for Sundance Channel and now works as a writer, producer, and media educator. He is a regular contributor to dvdverdict.com and contributor to the Eyes and Ears section of huffingtonpost.com