Butler's Cinema Scene

“THE OTHER  F  WORD” My rating: B- (Opening Nov. 18 at the Screenland Crossroads)

98 minutes | No MPAA rating

The whole punk movement was about giving the finger to the Establishment, about spreading political, musical and social anarchy, about just not giving a damn.

So what happens when hard-core punkers become parents?

That’s the intriguing question posed by Andrea Blaugrun Nevins’  “The Other F Word,” a documentary that allows a dozen or so punk rockers to comment on their lives as fathers.

The film’s subjects — like Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Duane Peters of U.S. Bombs, Lars Frederiksen of Rancid and especially Jim Lindberg of Pennywise — remain working musicians. They tour, they sing angry songs, they rant and spit from the stage.

But all describe a profound change brought on by having their own children.

“Nothing in the punk rock ethos prepares you for parenthood,” one observes.

Still, for these guys the transition from nihilism to domesticity wasn’t quite as jarring as you’d think. Many of them had unhappy childhoods with absentee fathers; at the very least punk meant doing everything their parents didn’t want them to do.

Flea and daughter

Today those unpleasant memories have left them determined that their own kids don’t have to endure the same hardships.

There are some very funny moments here. Fat Mike of the band NOFX notes that on his arm is a tattoo of a dominatrix with a ball gag in her mouth. “How do you explain that to a 4-year-old?” he asks.

Another punker reveals that he now has to purchase “clean” versions of his own albums to play in the family car.

Jack Grisham of TSOL recalls visiting the principal at his daughter’s school, quite unaware that he was wearing a “F**K the POLICE”  t-shirt.

Nevins’ film also delves into the changing music business that makes earning a living as a working band so much more difficult today. Thanks to the Internet, CD sales no longer provide a realistic business model. Whereas bands used to tour once a year, now they get home only once a year.

The latter part of the doc focuses on Pennywise vocalist Lindberg, who at the end of a yearlong tour decides it’s time to pack it in. His kids need him more than the fans do.

“The Other F Word” has some good music, a few laughs, and a suprisingly warm, squishy center. The worst that can be said about it is that it feels like it’s been padded a bit to reach feature film length.

| Robert W. Butler