Film critics have been spending a fair amount of time lately marveling at the trajectory of directors like Taika Waititi and Ryan Coogler, who started off making modest, personal films—Waititi with What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Coogler with Fruitvale Station and Creed—before getting tapped by Marvel to helm superhero blockbusters. (Waititi is helming the next Thor, while Coogler will be behind Black Panther.) As strange as those transitions might seem, the precedent for indie auteurs jumping into the mainstream was already set by directors like Penelope Spheeris.
Long before the now-70-year-old filmmaker took the reins of big-ticket Hollywood comedies like Wayne’s World, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Black Sheep, she was known for much grittier fare. After making her own short films and helping her friend Albert Brooks produce short segments for the early years of Saturday Night Live—and his big screen directorial debut Real Life—Spheeris broke into the popular consciousness via her 1981 documentary The Decline of Western Civilization.
A snapshot of the early LA punk scene, the film continues to have an immediate appeal thanks to thrilling performance footage that features seminal acts like Black Flag, the Germs, and X when they were in their prime. But the most affecting moments come from the interviews Spheeris conducted with punk fans and catching the musicians in their unguarded moments offstage. Cynicism, desperation, and disaffection drew both artists and audiences together into a strange, extended family that helped replace the often broken homes they left behind.