GIMME DANGER (Jim Jarmusch). 108 minutes. Opens Friday (November 4). See Listings. Rating: NNN
The Stooges were an ecstatically anarchic American band that emerged out of Michigan in the late 60s and disintegrated in 1974, inventing punk rock half a decade before anyone knew what to call it.
Their driving musical assaults – made legendary by Iggy Pop’s spectacular stage presence – were a clear inspiration for the Ramones, the Sex Pistols and everyone that followed. Yeah, they only lasted four or five years, but they made themselves immortal.
Gimme Danger, Jim Jarmusch’s loving look at the band’s phenomenally influential run, doesn’t break any new ground for the format, settling for the usual weave of raggedly videotaped performances and TV appearances with present-day interviews with the surviving band members. And it’s probably 20 minutes longer than it needs to be, telling the same story from multiple perspectives when one would suffice.
But when you’ve got archival footage this electric, and a contemporary Pop (still wonderfully averse to mythmaking and bullshit) who’s almost as entertaining, you can’t really blame a guy for overstuffing the package.
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