CBGB

Hilly Kristal opened a bar in a bad corner of Manhattan in 1973 and named it CBGB because he meant to book country, bluegrass and blues. None of that turned up. The Ramones, Television, Blondie, Talking Heads and Patti Smith did. Alan Rickman plays Kristal as a hopeless businessman with an unfailing ear, and that performance is the only durable thing here. Randall Miller frames the whole film in the visual language of John Holmstrom's Punk magazine, dropping comic panels, thought balloons and sound effects between scenes. Critics were close to unanimous that this is where it falls apart. A film about the punk scene being this tidy and this harmless is a problem in itself. Chronology and character take a beating too, and anyone who knows the period will count an uncomfortable number of shortcuts. Who it is for: viewers curious about Rickman and the legend of the club. Who it is not for: anyone who takes punk history seriously.