LEMMY (D: Greg Olliver, Wes Orshoski) Rating: NNN Opens Friday (February 18) at the Royal Cinema. See Indie & Rep Film listings Rating: NNN
At the beginning of the new documentary about Lemmy Kilmister, a fan sums up the Motörhead singer and bassist best: “If they drop a nuclear bomb on this planet, Lemmy and cockroaches is all that’s going to survive.”
Indeed, the Lemmy depicted by directors Greg Olliver and Wes Orshoski, who filmed him relentlessly for three years, is an unapologetic chain-smoking, whisky-swilling, speed-taking, women-bedding, rough-voiced rocker. But that’s exactly what we expect from the godfather of heavy metal.
More interesting is the 65-year-old English legend’s seemingly solitary life off the road, which he mostly spends playing the trivia machine at L.A.’s Rainbow Bar and Grill. Nearby, his small rent-controlled apartment bursts with Motörhead paraphernalia, early rock ‘n’ roll records and military memorabilia, including Nazi souvenirs whose aesthetic qualities he admires.
Lacking a narrative arc or conflict, the film sticks with the classic rockumentary elements: concert footage, tour bus glimpses, fan idolatry, interviews with perennial rock doc “experts” Joan Jett, Slash and Dave Navarro, with curiously little from Motörhead’s other long-time members, Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee.
But it’s Lemmy himself – sarcastic, humble, sagacious and, especially near the end, weary – who keeps us entertained. Best is the rare footage from his Hawkwind days and a scene with his adult son that reveals his non-traditional parenting style.
