Sir Drone (1989) User Reviews

the most accurate film about starting a lousy band...

[Neil Ofsteel · 1 January 2004]

When I was in highschool, I found a copy of Sir Drone at the old video store in my hometown. The place was run by the family members of the Screaming Trees so they had a lot of bizarre punk rock movies and an awesome cult section. When I rented this movie, I was just getting started with my own talentless punk band so alot of the stupid stuff that goes on here was pretty relevant to the things I was trying to do. The plot involves a couple of young punk rockers attempting to form a band, I believe, to score with chicks and get beer or something like that. The band is ridiculously bad which is funny because Mike Watt is a really talented bassist. The movie looks like a home movie that was (I'm assuming) shot entirely in the SST Records office. It was directed by artist Raymond Pettibon who did most of the band Black Flag's flyers and cover art (his brother, Greg Ginn, was the guitarist for Black Flag.) Anyone who's not into the trashy low-fi aspects of punk should steer clear of this one because it's super cheap but I definitely recommend it to any up and coming punker slobs like me who probably won't realize until later that the entire film is just making fun of them.

A punk rock art film by Raymond Pettibon

[petelynch23 · 10/10 · 5 November 2013]

If you are familiar with Raymond Pettibon and his very specific art, you will adore this film. It's like looking at his drawings come to life, all the words, while read off cue cards, are exactly like the kind of text he uses in his art. So if you view it like that, and are a fan of Pettibon's work, please seek this out, along with the other 3 films in this series - although this one is the easiest to digest because its only an hour long and the others run 3+. Don't pay attention to the acting, although Mike Watt and Mike Kelley are both very lovable characters who seem to be having a great time making this, and it is really funny to watch Watt, a famously excellent bassplayer, deliberately playing badly.

RIP Mike Kelley. RIP Joe Cole.