Fans of the legendary post-punk band the Birthday Party will take to Ian White’s new film like pigs to slop, relishing the debaucherous badassery of its subjects and their drug-addled journey to greatness.
The uninitiated will probably also have a good time with this full-tilt boogie, sonic assault of a documentary, which paints a warts-and-all portrait of the band and its members: Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, Rowland S Howard, Phill Calvert and Tracy Pew. These wrong-side-of-the-tracks artists played by their own rules, spat in the face of decorum and decency, and through a haze of putrid indulgence succeeded against the odds.
