by Annette Basile

Year:  2024

Director:  Luke C. Griffiths

Rated:  15+

Release:  9 and 10 August 2024

Distributor: HALO Films

Running time: 95 minutes

Worth: $15.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

Cast:
Wayne Green, Lee Sappho, Charlie Green, Phil Bennett, Kevin Smith, Alex Wilson

Intro:
… as much a character study as it is a music doco.

“I’ll tell you the story of my accidental criminal enterprise,” says Wayne Green, a stalwart of Perth’s pub stages, as he begins recounting just one of his many true tales in this rock doc.

Green is best known for fronting Wayne Green & The Phantoms, and also for his year-long stint with one of WA’s biggest bands, Boys. With his weathered face, long locks and Stones t-shirt, he recounts tales of drink, sweat and vomit, occasionally referring to himself as “a dickhead”. This film traces his career from its 1970s start through to the recent recording of his first solo album – some half a century after first taking the stage.

Green: The Fight for Rock and Roll is musically strong, and writer/director Luke C. Griffiths gets the balance between talking heads and music just right as the film swerves from the high-energy pub rock of the Phantoms, to Green’s alter ego, Kid Green, a country singer with a rich and earthy sound.

Make no mistake, the music here is enough to make this enjoyable and Green has a great and gritty voice that includes some perfect primal screams. But it’s the candour of the man himself that makes this something special. He’s unflinchingly honest about his struggles, his regrets and the on-and-off relationships he has with some of his offspring. And if there is a theme, it’s about how he repeatedly came close to breaking out of the Perth pub circuit and finding a wider audience, but for one reason or another, it just didn’t happen.

Green’s band “could have been contenders”, as one of the former Phantoms says. Watching the archival footage of the Phantoms included here, there’s no doubt they could have indeed been bigger.

Green: The Fight for Rock and Roll includes interviews with Green’s son, Charlie, plus various musicians including singer/songwriter Lee Sappho, who is also Green’s partner and she offers a perspective on Green’s struggles that is full of love and empathy.

It is clear that Griffiths has a great deal of empathy for his subject, while Green himself has a ragged charm, making this film as much a character study as it is a music doco.

Green: The Fight for Rock and Roll is screening at Luna Leederville and Luna on SX, more info here

7.8Good
Score
7.8
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