We Got Power Films: Desperate Teenage Lovedolls/Lovedolls Superstar (1984 - 1986) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of We Got Power Films

Within the last few months, MVD Visual has been completing a circle of documentaries and music related underground films connected to the 1980s Los Angeles punk rock scene starting with The Secret Lives of Bill Bartell chronicling the life of the White Flag frontman as well as Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story.  Somewhere along the way, their separate punk rock worlds intersected in We Got Power fanzine founder, filmmaker and musician David Markey’s double-feature of Super 8 films Desperate Teenage Lovedolls and Lovedolls Superstar.  Made and released underground between 1984 and 86, it told the satirical fictional tale of the success and demise of an all-girl punk rock group called The Lovedolls thriving in Hollywood while also showcasing a number of the Los Angeles punk rock bands which were popular at the time. 
 
While neither film necessarily represented high watermarks of fine acting or quality filmmaking despite the second one being of much greater technical and production value, they form an integral puzzle piece connecting the aforementioned documentary films and have an underground music-movie charm that straddles a fine line between The Decline of Western Civilization and the Troma picture.  Moreover, the distinctly feminine punk rocker image kicked into high gear with these wild and anarchic underground quasi-music video Super 8 releases.  In the first one, running a brisk single hour and moving at breakneck speed, Desperate Teenage Lovedolls zeroes in on three girls, Kitty (Jennifer Schwartz), Bunny (Hilary Rubens) and Patch (Janet Housden), in the midst of running away from home from one of the overbearing mothers who gets herself killed chasing them.  Foraging on the streets rife with drug addicts and gang members, their paths cross with Johnny Tremaine (Steve McDonald from Redd Kross) a hotshot casting couch music manager who promises the girls fame and fortune provided they sleep with him too.  Tracking their rise to superstardom, they find themselves fighting off a gang war while seeking sweet vengeance against their dirtbag manager.
 
A punk-rock movie that is out-of-the-gate hard to take seriously, tongue in cheek, while also showcasing a side of Los Angeles rarely seen outside of Hollywood 90028 where the city of dreams is also crawling with crime and vermin, Desperate Teenage Lovedolls is an inspired dark comedy musical romp.  Despite shaky footage and crusty scratchy audio that takes some getting used to, the anarchic go-for-broke energy of the piece practically emanates off of the screen.  Performances across the board are not exactly good or convincing, but knowing the terrain you’re getting yourself into, these trivialities don’t matter.  Treading a fine line between The Decline of Western Civilization with hints of Combat Shock and Deadbeat at Dawn underground mania all the while set to hit tunes from Redd Kross, Desperate Teenage Lovedolls is a scrappy dose of female driven punk rock cinema that feels like a Russ Meyer film at times.

 
Just a couple of years later, on a bigger budget of $10K and co-produced by Jennifer Schwartz, a sequel film Lovedolls Superstar also lensed on Super 8 was made by David Markey.  Picking up where the previous film’s events left off including a small recap for those who didn’t catch the first one, the film follows Patch Kelley (Janet Housden) who has started a religious cult devoted to rescuing lost souls from oblivion and runs into the former Lovedolls frontwoman Kitty (Jennifer Schwartz) who has gone to the streets wallowing in alcoholism following the murder of one of her bandmates.  Picking herself back up by the bootstraps, Kitty and Patch soon befriend a prostitute on Sunset Boulevard named Alexandria (Kim Pilkington) with the intention of replacing deceased bandmate Bunny (Hilary Rubens).  Meanwhile Rainbow the brother of Johnny Tremaine (again Steve McDonald) ventures out to Hollywood and joins forces with a vengeful mother of a gang leader who was killed by Kitty in a shootout in search of avenging his brother’s death.

 
Featuring far more cameos throughout the film including Bill Bartell as a cop, Vicki Peterson of Bangles, Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys and Sky Saxon of The Seeds as well as a cacophony of needle drops featuring Sonic Youth, Meat Puppets, Gone and Black Flag, Lovedolls Superstar is a much more polished and fully realized film despite also being on Super 8.  With more striking cinematography including shots of the Capitol Records building and Los Angeles storefronts, a more involved plotline that seems to raise the stakes even higher than they were set at the first time, a more eclectic cast, all around it feels less like an underground picture and more like a fully-fledged feature.  There’s also a far more extensive concert driven finale with the Lovedolls that proves to be a far more satisfying coda than the abrupt if not incongruent one in the first film.

 
Initially a videotape favorite with a hit soundtrack via Gasatanka Records before reappearing on DVD, Desperate Teenage Lovedolls and its sequel film Lovedolls Superstar have been given a top-to-bottom 4K restoration with partially rebuilt audio on the first film and a fully remixed 5.1 surround-sound version of the second.  The frame rate and frequently choppy audio with the Super 8 shutter audible through all the dialogue takes some getting used to but all things considered these 4K scans look great and the second one at times almost achieves 16mm qualities.  Included among the extras are commentary tracks with the director, the members of Redd Kross, screenwriter and star Jennifer Schwartz the central star of the piece, outtakes, alternate takes, theatrical trailers, a making-of featurette and an official Ballad of a Lovedoll music video. 

 
For the uninitiated unfamiliar with Redd Kross or White Flag or the proliferation of the Los Angeles punk rock scene, Desperate Teenage Lovedolls and Lovedolls Superstar might not land the same way as it does for fans.  As someone recently introduced to White Flag frontman Bill Bartell and the story of Redd Kross, the double-feature release of both of these Super 8 underground films kind of further enhances both of the aforementioned documentaries.  Knowing Bill Bartell’s story and seeing him onscreen in the second Lovedolls film was a real thrill where it might not’ve had the same effect on someone who didn’t know him.  The tone of these things are very anarchic tongue-in-cheek punk-rock oriented with some things you can’t get away with today including a gag where a Brews Springsteen is gunned down and draped in the American flag.  But if you’re aware of what the punk rock movement was about, you’ll be tickled pink by both of these Super 8 underground rock movies which have never looked or sounded better!

--Andrew Kotwicki