Sonic Youth Movies

Inevitably recalling the shenanigans of Tom Green and Sasha Baron Cohen's Ali G, Canadian comedian Nardwuar the Human Serviette is essentially a provocateur who built his career out of shocking and offending politicians, actors, musicians, and other noteworthy public figures by pummeling them with outrageous and bizarre questions. Nardwuar particularly specializes in skewering anyone with an aura of self-righteous dignity or importance. Like Green, he rose to celebrity through the tunnels of public access television; the release Nardwuar the Human Serviette: Welcome to My Castle presents a "best of" compilation of interview footage from Nardwuar's 1990s local access series, in which he does Q&A with such guests as Pierre Eliot Trudeau, Ron Jeremy, Timothy Leary, Gerald Ford, Nirvana, Tony Robbins and many others. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

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

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

Writer and director Allison Anders, who used the world of rock & roll as the backdrop for her films Border Radio, Grace of My Heart, and Sugar Mountain, returns to the music scene for this tale of a woman struggling to come to terms with an emotionally devastating past. Sherry McGrale (Kim Dickens) is a punk-influenced singer and songwriter whose angry, deeply personal music has begun to win her a national following, though the demons that fuel her art are playing havoc with her life, as she drowns her sorrows in drugs and alcohol and fills a growing police blotter with arrests for disorderly conduct. Sherry is winning significant airplay for a song about the brutal rape of a young woman, and rock journalist Owen (Gabriel Mann) convinces his editor Pete (Rosanna Arquette) to assign him a major story on Sherry when he tells her he knows the truth about Sherry's own rape as an adolescent, which inspired the song. Owen is forced to run interference with Chuck (Don Cheadle), Sherry's manager and former boyfriend who is fiercely protective of his fragile client, but Owen is still able to meet with the singer. However, Owen finds that Sherry either can't or won't remember most of the details of the brutal and degrading assault, and she doesn't want to discuss the heavy toll it's taken upon her. Influential experimental rock group Sonic Youth contributed several original compositions for the film's score; Sherry's singing voice was provided by Kristen Vigard, who performed on the soundtrack of Grace of My Heart. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Sarah Pirozek filmed this documentary combining interviews with concert footage of the 1996 San Francisco Tibetan Freedom Concert, which attracted 100,000 people to Golden Gate Park. The film's executive producer, Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, is a Buddhist who initiated the concept of the annual concert. Included are current-events clips (the Dalai Lama addressing Congress, President Clinton announcing a continuation of trade despite China's treatment of Tibetans). With numbers (or partial performances) from top groups (A Tribe Called Quest, Beastie Boys, Bjork, De La Soul, Foo Fighters, Fugees, Richie Havens, John Lee Hooker, Biz Markie, Tim Meadows, Yoko Ono, Pavement, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins), this film was distributed to one city at a time and marketed like a concert tour. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Through much of the 1980s, Sonic Youth had been slowly but steadily developing a reputation as one of the most original and exciting bands on the American underground scene. In the summer of 1991, the band headed to Europe for a concert tour and discovered they weren't as underground as they imagined themselves to be; booked into a series of massive outdoor festivals, the band found themselves playing to some of the largest audiences of their career, and sharing stages with other American bands who were poised for an unexpected commercial breakthrough both in Europe and at home (most notably a little band from Seattle called Nirvana). Musician and filmmaker Dave Markey tagged along for the ride, and Sonic Youth: 1991 - The Year Punk Broke is his document of one of America's most important alternative bands riding a wave that would break with the grunge revolution late the same year. Along with Sonic Youth and Nirvana, Sonic Youth: 1991 - The Year Punk Broke also features performances by Babes in Toyland, Dinosaur Jr., and Gumball, as well as a brief flash of the Ramones playing a club gig. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Not the same as Jean-Luc Godard's 1966 film, this movie stars Chris Penn and Adrian Pasdar as Pennsylvania coal-mining victims who hit the road and travel to California. On the way, they add a hitchhiker (Lori Singer) and get mixed up in a life of crime. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

In January of 1985, experimental New York rockers Sonic Youth played their first show in California as part of a special outdoor festival held in the Mojave Desert, the Gila Monster Jamboree. This video captures Sonic Youth's West Coast debut in glorious black-and-white; the band's nine-song set list includes "Brave Men Run," "Death Valley '69," "Brother James," "Flower," and "I Love Her All the Time." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide