Of all the underground films that have graced the desk of this columnist in the last year, GOOD GRIEF is without a doubt the best written, most well directed of the lot. GOOD GRIEF is a genuine full length feature that pulls off the near unheard of accomplishment of stringing together three solid acts, where as with most films that have been submitted to our Berkeley HQ we'd be happy to get one good act to go along with all of the refuge from one too many days spent improvising camera angles and assinine dialogue. You wont find anything that obviously wrong with Andrew Dickson's story of nerdy gamers (They play a game called Monsters And Mayhem), albeit the acting abilities of some of the talent is far below even junior college theatre standards. In fact, GOOD GRIEF could easily be recast and and with a bigger budget it would be probably be one of the best coming of age films since THREE O'CLOCK HIGH, or BETTER OFF DEAD. Hold up, I've gotten way ahead of myself.
GOOD GRIEF centers around a character by the name of Chuck. Chuck is nerd in the worst way. He gets bullied by the football team, who lift him up and dunk his head in the high school boy's room toilet (Does this ever really happen?). When Chuck goes to see the really bad emo/new wave band at the all ages performance space, the hippie looking guy at the door charges him $6 even though there is a big sign that says the show is $5. Chuck can't win. The only thing Chuck is good at, and the only thing he really seems to care about, much less understands is the game him and his nerd friends play called Monsters And Mayhem. He has spent six years building the strength of his character, whatever that means. One day, after Chucks parents explain that they can't afford to send him to college, or actually that they can but they just think that it would be a waste of money to send a loser like Chuck to college, Chuck and his friends decide to skip a trip to the beach for the summer, and instead they set out on a treasure hunt. The treasure is a gold statue that some gaming author has buried some place in the US, and in order to find the treasure the group of nerds will have to use all of their gaming skills that they've spent most of their high school years honing. Some how, and not very believeably I'll admit, Chuck convinces all his friends to go on what amounts to a wild goose chase that never really looks too promising from a treasure hunting standpoint.
Andrew Dickson has assembled a likeable cast, but GOOD GRIEF runs into a number of problems that many of the films we receive here at PMN headquarters have in common. Acting is always inconsistent, and that is never going to change with films of this nature, but more telling is the lack of diversity in the kinds of individuals being portrayed. Dyed goth hair, extreme emo fashion, and even an occasional nod to lesbianism or bi sexuality (Which appears in almost every narrative I've reviewed in this column thus far), doesn't hide the fact that the chracters in these films are middle to upper middle class caucasian males anf females who live very white bread, conservative existences. The exception being that they are into what these films loosely define as punk, or underground music and culture. Honestly, MTV's definition wouldn't be very different from those found in undeground films from the past year. GOOD GRIEF is able to overcome this disability by having an actual story to tell, and by having writers, filmakers, and cinematographers (!!!) who are not only competent, but most likely on the verge of being great successes at what they do. GOOD GRIEF is a film that is not to be missed by anyone who reads this column on a regular basis.
(Andrew Dickson, 503-872-9792, andrewdickson@earthlink.net, www.goodgriefmovie.com)

You won't find a more pretentiously emo title than SIGHT AND SOUND: THE HISTORY OF THE FUTURE. If this is our future, then kill yourself now because it's going to be even more ugly and boring that the present, and the soundtrack is going to be one notch below Chinese water torture. Mike D of the Beastie Boys once reviewed a Soul Asylum LP by descrbing it as - and I'm definitely parapharsing here - a boring white band who makes boring music for boring white people. The same could be said of almost every band that appears on this video (The video tape is actually white instead of black) that was put out by No Idea Records, the exceptions being Melt Banana, Asshole Parade, and Leatherface. If we are lucky, this will only be the future in Gainesville Florida, and that way at least we will be able to avoid a future that could be even worse than the miserable one we are already headed for. Other bands that appear on this video are: ARMY OF PONCH, BURNMAN, CAMP KILL YOURSELF, CRUCIBLE, DISCOUNT, HOT WATER MUSIC, LOAD, SMALL BROWN BIKE, TRUE NORTH, THE WHITE DOVE FRISBEE TEAM.
(No Idea, PO BOX 14636, Gainesville, Florida 32604, www.noidearecords.com)

This film must have cost a fortune to make. That's relative to underground standards of course. The packaging alone is better than some major studio video releases. This film is so totally fucking LA that I was able to rekindle my contempt for the southland just by watching this film. That is something listening to the horrible nineties punk music that came from LA didn't even accomplish outright. THAT DARN PUNK stars Joe Escalante from the Vandals (Who used to be decent) as Dirk, an older punk musician who plays in a really bad LA style melodic punk band called the Big Tippers, and who desperately wants to grow out of his old ways as a womanizing local rock star. At stake is a current relationship with a girlfriend who he may actually love. She is an artist, of course, and not just some shallow tramp or psycho like the rest of the women Dirk comes into contact with. Dirk knows that he must commit to his girlfriend, and when she has to travel up north to the Bay Area for an art show, Dirk realizes that this time alone may be his last chance he'll have to grow up before his girlfriend leaves him. She is special after all. You know, she's an artist, and not just like all those other slutty, psychos who Dirk runs into on a daily basis while hanging with his band, or playing shows, or even shooting videos, but everything just seems to go wrong.
THAT DARN PUNK is slightly more than informed by films such as AFTER HOURS, SOMETHING WILD, and not to mention almost any Kevin Smith and or Quentin Tarantino film. The problem being that neither Joe Escalante or Jeff Richardsonare on a talent level anywhere near the aforementioned group, and the success of THAT DARN PUNK requires that they at least attempt to carry the film on their shoulders. Joe Escalante isn't without screen presence, and he may work out eventually as a supporting character in some future, better thought out film. This is not to say that Jeff Richardson's film is not without it's positive points. First of all the fact that this film was shot on 16mm almost makes it worth watching alone. The cinematography is top notch, and the fact that they claim to have completed this film for around $21, 000 strikes me as impressive, although I'm also slightly skeptical about those figures. There is a killer segment that takes place in the desert that could have made one hell of short film when taken out of the context of the rest of the feature length it's a part of. As with all of the films I review here, it goes without saying that you'd be better off supporting films like THAT DARN PUNK before turning on a network television show, or renting some major studio piece of garbage (Exceptions being any of the films I referenced in this review).
(Kung-Fu Films, www.thatdarnpunk.com, PO BOX 3061, Seal Beach, CA 90740)

Please send all relevant items to: Jay Dead, PMB 419, 1442A Walnut Street, Berkeley, CA 94709. You can check out my past Punk Movie Nights columns at www.wethepunx.com ro you can always order some back issues from the fine folks here at the MRR compound. Cheers!