Todd Phillips’ Gnarliest Film Is a Documentary

The rock star biopic to end all biopics was too good to be true. So, watch the unhinged Todd Phillips documentary instead. In 2022, THR reported that production had started on a GG Allin biography, bringing to screen the most controversial and grossest musician of all time. It was doomed from the start, for reasons that will become obvious. Luckily, Phillips had already created the rawest, nastiest music doc you’ll ever set eyes on thirty-two years ago, Hated: GG Allin & the Murder Junkies.

Chronicling the NYC underground punk scene, the young film student found the ultimate personality for his doc, GG Allin. Racking up a rap sheet as long as his discography, the documentary is gripping and gut-churning in equal measures. It was supposed to be a concert film, but the shows didn’t last long enough. Rarely does a biopic (or its subject) invite you to make up your own mind. For that alone, Phillips did a masterful job of maintaining the punk ethos. He’s not trying to sell you that Allin is a misunderstood soul, a secret genius, or even sane. Should that sound suspiciously similar to the character arc he devised for Arthur Fleck in the Joker franchise, that’s probably not a coincidence.

The GG Allin Story: The Unfilmable Hollywood Biopic?

Skinny Nervous Guy Productions

Born Jesus Christ Allin, he was predestined to be the focal point of attention. In a surprising display of humility, he changed his name to the unassuming stage moniker “GG.” He rose to minor fame in squalid clubs, known only in the mainstream for an appearance on The Jerry Springer Show, trying to foment a popular uprising against the government, stating “Rock and roll is revenge. Rock and roll is your enemy, and I am your enemy.” For his fans, he was the only rock star who wasn’t a sell-out or a poseur. An image that appeals to many to this day.

Despite some efforts by indie director Jonas Åkerlund, the biopic concept is currently dead, essentially blacklisted. However, Hangover and Joker director Todd Philips (then only an NYU student) did manage to make a documentary in 1993 for those with morbid curiosity and a strong stomach, likely shaping his future, irreverent projects. Think of it as a response to Penelope Spheeris’ The Decline of Western Civilization films. Phillip’s documentary offered a peek into the psyche of one of music’s most deranged icons. So, open your mind and then open your barf bag. We’re warning you now, this is dark, full of sexual content, drug abuse, and other assorted, vile nonsense.

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GG Allin Lives It Up on The Way Down

Skinny Nervous Guy Productions

GG Allin was too weird for Hollywood, but not Phillips. What little film that exists of him today is thanks to bits and pieces of trashy talk show interviews and this documentary. Simply trying to find a clean recording of Allin’s songs isn’t easy. The brash documentary opens up with a loving epigraph provided by serial killer John Wayne Gacy, Allin himself stating he believed in reincarnation, providing a Buddhist-like view towards living in the present:

“I don’t think about the future. I think about what’s happening today. **** tomorrow. I don’t know. It’s really not important as long as I don’t get arrested today … We’ll get there when we get there.”

With song titles we can’t repeat, filled with lyrics that would probably land us on an FBI watchlist if we attempted to print them, Allin was too repulsive for most other punk rock fans or bands. The singer encouraged debauchery, nihilism, and brutal acts of violence. One song’s chorus is comprised soley of the word “decapitation.” As the documentary illustrates, the showman enjoyed playing the underdog, though his ex-bandmates desired to be more than a carnival sideshow. “His fans managed to get their money’s worth by repeatedly kicking him and breaking bottles over his head,” Phillips begins his movie, bloodshed (or other bodily fluids) mandatory at a Murder Junkies gig.

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Separating the Truth From Legend

Warner Bros. Entertaiment Inc. and Legendary Pictures

Allin made this his last will & testament and manifesto. He hated the world, and wished to see every rule broken for the sake of freedom. For once, the pearl clutchers were probably right. In later screenings and appearances, Phillips admitted the production was a nightmare, with Allin sabotaging his own career and this film.

As reported in Bedford + Bowery, locations were staged, Phillips bamboozled his own college, then ran out of money and had to drop out of school to finish it. What other scenes were faked or laws broken, we can only speculate. After all that, Phillips still didn’t have sufficient footage. Hated: GG Allin & the Murder Junkies is limited to a mere 52-minute runtime, for reasons we won’t spoil.

Though easily dismissed as an irresponsible filmmaker glamorizing the worst tendencies of the music industry and accompanying fandom, Phillips does offer a counterbalance to Allin’s cult of personality. To admirers, Allin allowed onlookers to live out their sickest fantasies in absurdist art performances, escaping from reality. Yet, former bandmates remark how they grew exhausted, Allin’s own brother lamenting that every tour was bound to fail, fated for “prison or the hospital.”

If there is anyone with the nerve and influence to make this cursed biopic, it’s Phillips. Older and wiser, and with a deeper grasp of Allin’s probable mental illness, a full-fledged biography would be an ideal palate cleanser after the maligned Joker sequel. At the very least, it would shake up a boring trend of rock-star films sanctifying their subjects.

Hated: GG Allin & the Murder Junkies can currently be viewed for free on Tubi.

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