CBGB (2013)

I grew up in the 1970s but I was too young to “get” punk music. My musical tastes at that time were Elton John, Bay City Rollers, and KISS. When I grew up a bit, I would read magazines like Creem, Rock, and Circus. They let me know a little bit about the punk scene but I never really embraced it. As the bands that emerged from the punk underworld became more mainstream, I came to appreciate some of them like The Police, Talking Heads, The Ramones, and Blondie to name a few.

But I never really knew much about CBGB, the bar that provided a live venue for those bands (and countless others) in the 1970s. So, when I came across CBGB, Randall Miller’s 2013 movie about the seminal bar, I figured maybe I’d learn something. Sadly, though, even with my minimal knowledge of the origins of punk, I came to realize that the movie was more fiction than fact.

CBGB introduces us to Hilly Kristal (Alan Rickman), who we see declaring bankruptcy for the second time. After running two previous bars into the ground, Kristal immediately searches for a third one to buy. Once he acquires what he eventually names CBGB (Country, BlueGrass and Blues, the music he intends to book,) he’s approached by the manager of a band called Television. They audition to play at Kristal’s new bar and, in a circuitous fashion, open the door to thousands of punk bands playing there.

At that level, CBGB, the movie may or may not be factually correct. But as the film delves into the day-to-day of the club, it adds up to little more than a parade of celebrities dressing up like punk rockers and miming to songs. While it is somewhat fun to see the likes of Malin Akerman play Debbie Harry and Rupert Grint play Cheetah Chrome, the novelty wears thin after 30 minutes. These scenes are linked together with running gags about Hilly Kristal’s dog defecating on the floor of the club and its roach and rat-infested condition. Kristal’s inability to manage money is reiterated again and again. When Kristal foolishly decides to manage Cleveland rockers, The Dead Boys, my patience began to wear out.

Thankfully, the music — including songs by the aforementioned bands as well as Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Mink DeVille, and Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers — keeps the movie from getting too dull. There are many instances where bands are shown playing songs at CBGB before they would have been written or recorded. One performance — a duet between Debbie Harry and Iggy Pop on “I Wanna Be Your Dog” — never even happened. The end credits proclaim, “We know that Iggy Pop never played at CBGB…just deal with it.” Attention to detail isn’t really the movie’s focus. So, if the movie doesn’t get the music aspect right, how much of the other stuff does it get wrong?

Alan Rickman does his best to make Hilly Kristal a sympathetic character but the writing fails him. And who’s decision was it to include comic-book-style artwork and thought balloons to punctuate certain moments? They’re a needless distraction in a film that has enough of them already.

If nothing else, CBGB might get today’s audiences interested in learning about the true origins of what is now considered classic rock. Sadly, they won’t find much truth here.