by John Noonan

Year:  2024

Director:  Andrew Reich

Release:  6 July 2024

Running time: 84 minutes

Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

Revelation Perth International Film Festival

Cast:
Jeff McDonald, Steve McDonald, Thurston Moore, Buzz Osbourne, Greg Hetson, Dale Crover

Intro:
Sometimes, it’s great to tune in and drop out with a couple of guys who made the best they could with that they had, and still continue to do so.

Formed by brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald in their early teens – tweens even – the band Redd Kross has a legacy that spans over 4 decades and includes notable fans such as Axl Rose, David Bowie and Kurt Cobain.

When we meet the McDonalds in Andrew Reich’s documentary Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story, there’s no pretence in their affable attitude on screen. When they talk about opening for Black Flag when they were barely out of puberty, they seem just as surprised as you do.  With such a hardcore start and wealth of famous support, why aren’t they doing world tours today? The secret appears to be, at least from watching this documentary, that the band never seemed to take much of what they were doing seriously. Influenced by various aspects of pop culture, they simply loved and love making music.

At times, the documentary notes that other bands accidently or deliberately took advantage of their somewhat obscurity to the mainstream, taking influence from them to fuel their own music. Jane’s Addiction, for example, is given a through skewering for making a ‘fake Redd Kross song’, while the aforementioned Axl Rose and his hip shaking appears to owe a debt to Jeff McDonald. Not that the brothers will rant and rave. While they sort of shrug their shoulders, it’s their family and friends in the documentary that calls this out. It’s clear from Reich’s documentary that the McDonalds are loved and respected on a grand scale. Does that mean it feels like too much of love-in? At times, yes.

Of course, a documentary like this is going to be a celebration. Yet, at times, when the film does try to dig a little deeper than them growing their hair to the shock of the punk community who held them dear, the brothers themselves are roadblocks.

The biggest revelation comes at the start, when Reich explores Steve’s kidnapping as a teenager. His girlfriend, who was more than twice his age, basically ran off with him and sexually assaulted him. It’s a horrific story but within the confines of the film, it almost becomes whimsical as the boys talk about how the ordeal led to them writing their titular song, Born Innocent. Elsewhere, Jeff is reluctant to talk about drug addiction and it’s apparent that, for him, this is a chapter of his life that doesn’t need much exploring. At least that’s how it appears to be on the outside looking in.

Obviously, no one is saying Reich should go out of his way to pick at scars long since healed. Not every music documentary has to be a warts-and-all production like The Dirt, of course. Sometimes, it’s great to tune in and drop out with a couple of guys who made the best they could with that they had, and still continue to do so. And on that front, Born Innocent is engaging watch.

6.6Good
Score
6.6
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