Dynamixor
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
Jonah Abbott
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
Fatma Suarez
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Billy Ollie
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
judder_vision
There's no better way to describe GG Allin than in his own words:"My mind is a machine gun, my body's the bullets, and the audience is the target."He truly was disgusting, disturbing, and controversial, yet fascinating and entertaining all at the same time. He's brutal and honest and this documentary shows every aspect of it. Definitely intriguing, Hated manages to show the calm -- almost intuitive -- side of GG as he explains he is who he is. He wasn't just music, he was a performer. He'll do what he wants and he doesn't care who tries to stop him. Hated captures the message he's trying to convey; be yourself.Though some may argue he was simply an obviously violent individual with nothing to offer to society, you just can't doubt that he ultimately was like nothing you've ever seen before and could give one hell of a performance that you could never forget. People strive to be known and end up losing themselves in the process. GG defied that without even trying.He made his mark, he changed the game, and he was unstoppable. Whether you loved him or hated him, he single-handedly affected and influenced a whole generation by staying true to himself and doing what he loved. Isn't that what being an artist is all about?
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
"The human is just another animal who is able to speak out freely, to express himself clearly." And that is just what G.G. Allin's problem is. He does not try to express himself with words like any animal who can speak would do, or to express himself clearly like any human with some sense would do. He uses nearly exclusively body language and in that body language only one side of the picture, the gross and the gore, the dirty and the bloody. Punk they say? Punk they have the right to say. But G.G. Allin demonstrates if it is necessary to do so that he, as a punk rocker with a death wish, is an exhibitionist, an aggressive and violent person, a literal s***t-eater, a true p***s-drinker and a self p***e-taster. So what! So nothing. So not much. The death wish is no longer only a death wish in him. It is also a death instinct because he not only wishes death but he is cruelly violent against other people. If he really believes a body is a rock and roll temple, his vision of the temple is particularly dilapidated. It is Stonehenge after a gang of looters armed with twenty bulldozers have been on the site for a fortnight. Look at his temple, at his body: out of shape due to no exercise, extreme alcoholism, drug addiction of all types and kinds, not to speak of his idea that the body is like paper, to be scribbled on I guess. There is no explanation in this very superficial film. And there is no real presentation of his music. It is more some kind of self-satisfying review of this annihilating and nihilistic anti-art attitude on what is not even a stage, but just a piece of floor in some kind of back room. Punk for sure but without the music or without the political anarchism. Just some scatological provocation as if a provocation was enough to be considered as art in the simple fact that it is a provocation or as politics in the simple fact that is outside all norms. Too bad, and what's more he did not even hold his promise to commit suicide on stage. He simply died of an overdose. What a flop! What a let down! An artist should be able to hold his promises.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
tbyrne4
Surprisingly unsettling documentary about legendary cult rocker GG Allin and his cadre of followers, this film follows Allin about New York City as he plays gigs, gets kicked out of venues, and deconstructs his punk creed for the camera. Film also takes time out for revealing interviews with childhood friends of Allin, fans, Allin's high school teachers, Allin's relatively articulate brother Merle, and one humorously disgruntled ex-bandmate.If you've never heard of or seen Allin before, he's basically this punk rocker whose act is a (literal) assault on the audience. He plays naked, cuts himself, defecates onstage and rolls in it, vomits onstage, attacks members of the audience (and is attacked). It can be quite jarring to watch a GG show, even from the relative safety of one's own living room. There's the twitchy sensation that he is erasing any boundaries between performer and audience and the sense of danger becomes very real and scary.This film presents a somewhat one-sided view of Allin, I think. We see him in rage-mode, basically. I used to frequent mondo video in LA a year or two after Allin died and they had practically a library of concert footage on the guy. The people who worked there said he came in often and was just a mellow guy. It was when he got booze or drugs inside him that he became wild.Director Phillips does a very good job of chopping his footage up for maximum potency. And anyone doubting Todd Phillips' bravery need look no further than this footage or to his brilliant, incendiary banned HBO documentary "Frat House" about fraternity hazing.Unfortunately, Phillips doesn't dig too deeply into what may have caused Allin's crazed behavior. We hear a little about his abusive dad, but not nearly enough.Perhaps the best footage on the DVD is the bonus feature which shows GG's last show in NYC and it truly is disturbing stuff. Allin is frighteningly whacked-out on drugs and the camera follows him nonstop as he sings a song, then goes berserk when the sound cuts out. He attacks the venue (and several people in it) then spills out into a NYC street, naked, bleeding, and covered in feces, runs around the streets for a time generally being wild. Pretty great footage.Good documentary
John Sharling (lowdowndeeper)
A brutally honest film about a brutally honest man. GG didn't lie, nor does this documentary. It's easy to feel uncomfortable seeing this - and maybe we are meant to feel that way. But between the lines and feces throwing GG teaches us all an important lesson - that we are who and what we are. And GG didn't change his ways so why should we. I'm not saying look up to GG, but I am definitely saying DON'T LOOK DOWN ON GG. There are even sicker individuals out there, but they will not tell the world the way GG did. If you are afraid that you'll be very sick watching this film because of it's rather graphic nature then don't worry. It's not that bad at all. 7 thumbs of from Denmark.