Lydia Lunch Movies
Often compared with history's most infamous sexual deviants from Henry Miller to the Marquis de Sade, Lydia Lunch has expressed her unique ideas through several artistic mediums. Predominately a musician, writer, and spoken word performer, she brings a challenging and confrontational presence to her work in visual arts as well. Her film credits include writing, composing, directing, and acting, though she mostly appears as "Herself." In short experimental films and videos, she has worked with innovative filmmakers such as Beth B. and Nick Zedd since the late '70s. Several of Lunch's spoken word performances have been made available on video, most notably in 1988's The Gun Is Loaded and the documentary The Wild World of Lydia Lunch. In the mid '90s, she was a presenter at the Whitney Museum of Art's Underground Film Festival, personally appearing in several of the screenings. She collaborated with director Richard Kern for The Right Side of My Brain and Fingered, two short films investigating ideas of sex and violence. In the late '90s, Lunch was the creative consultant for the film Shadow Hours. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
A soft-spoken, thirteen-year old dreamer enters into a tentative friendship with a decidedly older and more popular boy in director Cam Archer's compassionate coming of age drama. Logan is an adolescent boy who just doesn't seem to fit in. Though the majority of the kids in his school view Logan as an outcast, cool older kid Rodeo Walker is one of the few students in the school who don't seem to go out of their way to make Logan's life miserable. As Logan begins to get in touch with his sexuality and a strange bond forms between he and Rodeo, the newly empowered Logan soon begins to take on the persona of Leah, an assured and seductive girl who seems to possess the self-confidence that has long been bullied out of her male alter ego. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Malcolm Stumpf, Patrick White, (more)
- 2006
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Lydia Lunch first rose to notoriety as a member of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, a band whose music was confrontation and willfully abrasive even by the standards of the New York punk scene, and they became one of the pioneering acts on the experimental no wave music scene. After Teenage Jesus broke up in 1979, Lunch went on lead the bands Beirut Slump and Eight Eyed Spy before distinguishing herself as a poet, novelist, photographer, performance artist and actress while collaborating on a long string of genre-defying and taboo-shattering musical projects. Lydia Lunch: Video Hysterie 1978-2006 collects a handful of live performances featuring Lunch and her many musical co-conspirators; in addition to live sets by Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and Eight Eyed Spy, this includes footage of Lunch singing with Die Haut and Shotgun Wedding as well as performances with Rowland S. Howard, Mark Cunningham, Terry Edwards, Ian White and many more. Songs include "Orphans", "Sorry For Behaving So Badly", "Blood Is Just Memory", "Inverted Dream", "Psychic Anthropology" and "Violence Is The Sport Of God". ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lydia Lunch
- 2004
- R
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Actress and filmmaker Asia Argento directed this faithful screen adaptation of the fictional J.T. Leroy's fictional memoir, which documents a boy's truly harrowing road to adulthood. Jeremiah (Jimmy Bennett) is the seven-year-old son of Sarah (Asia Argento), an unstable and unwed mother who abandoned her son and left him to be raised by foster parents. Jeremiah has come to love his guardians, and is devastated when Sarah arrives at their doorstep, demanding her child back. Threatening Jeremiah with torture if he tries to run away, Sarah introduces her young son to drugs and encourages her one-night-stand paramours to help "discipline" her son when she feels his behavior is inappropriate. Sarah marries a man named Emerson (Jeremy Renner), but abandons him shortly afterward; Emerson responds by molesting Jeremiah, and soon the child is left in the care of his grandparents (Peter Fonda and Ornella Muti), members of a fundamentalist Christian sect which emphasizes child discipline that's strict to the point of abuse. After three years, Sarah returns with a new husband, Kenny (Matt Schulze), and takes Jeremiah (now played by Dylan Sprouse and Cole Sprouse) with her; Kenny spends most of his time on the road as a trucker, and Sarah supports the family at home as a stripper and a prostitute. Sarah also begins dressing her son is girl's clothing, which excites the perverse appetites of Sarah's latest boyfriend, Jackson (Marilyn Manson); she soon leaves Jackson and pairs off with Chester (Jeremy Sisto), a biker with a dangerous way of making a living. The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things premiered at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened as part of the "Directors Fortnight" series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Asia Argento, Jimmy Bennett, (more)
Take a trip to a musical terrain where art and punk collide as filmmaker Scott Crary presents an illuminating look at New York City's short-lived no wave scene of the late 1970s and early '80s. A scene that birthed bands more concerned with challenging listeners rather than getting them out on the dance floor, no wave was an attempt by frustrated punk rockers to eschew such traditional concepts as influence and rhythm to birth something truly transgressive and original. Though the music of such no wavers as Suicide, Lydia Lunch, and Theoretical Girls would ultimately be deemed unlistenable by the majority of music fans, the post-punk elements of the style would later be adapted into a more commercial sound by such popular bands as Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Black Dice, and Liars. In addition to allowing the artists from each generation speak about what they believe to be the true value of their music, Crary attempts to contrast and compare the decidedly anti-commercial sentiments of the original no wavers with the radio-friendly output of their millennial counterparts. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Basing its contents from a combination of man-on-the-street interviews and insights from professional therapists, this docudrama chronicles an experiment in which a diverse group of male and female volunteers are locked in a bedroom for five days. Their instructions are to share their deepest feelings and express their most intimate fantasies. The group members include a dancer, a transvestite and a domantrix. The ensuing footage was edited into 14 titled segments such as "Flirtation," "Trust" and "Vulnerability" that follow the group from their introduction through several major conflicts. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Punk icons Lydia Lunch and Henry Rollins star in this cult drama about a pregnant pianist named Hedda whose marriage to husband Neal (Don Bajema) hits the skids with the sudden appearance of a mysterious stranger. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lydia Lunch, Don Bajema, (more)
- 1989
Performance artist Lydia Lunch turns her eye toward what she feels are the faults of American culture. ~ All Movie Guide
This documentary by filmmaker Maria Beatty explores the lives, careers, and creative inspirations of the beat poets, forging insight into the minds of such artists as Gregory Corso, Marianne Faithfull, Richard Hell, Allen Ginsberg, Lydia Lunch and Henry Rollins. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, (more)
- 1988
This off-beat documentary looks into the skewed and frequently depraved lives of some of New York City's most bizarre underground performance artists. Many scenes contain graphic violence, nudity and vulgar language that may offend certain viewers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joey Arias, Rick Aviles, (more)
- 1981
Scott B and Beth B, successful makers of short, experimental films made The Vortex an attempt at a "camp" film with a pessimistic "noirish" atmosphere. The detective Lunch (Lydia Lunch, a popular underground musician and poet) investigates a band of corporate businessman who seek government defense contracts through real "corporate wars" and the manipulation of politicians. Though a bit confusing, this film does have an excellent performance by Lunch, as the detective. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Russo, Lydia Lunch, (more)
- 1980
Hailed as a "punk melodrama," this feature started out as a serial and was originally shown at the popular New York City punk club Max's Kansas City. The homemade saga begins when Young Turks abduct performer Adele Bertei and her dad. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
