Story of East Bay punk preaches to converted
If you are interested in punk rock from the 1980s and early 1990s — better yet, if you are especially interested in punk rock bands that existed in the East Bay during that period — and even better, if you are interested in these bands practically to the exclusion of all other things on earth, then “Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk” is the dream documentary.
Over the course of 155 minutes — an amount of time usually enough to cover the entire first World War — “Turn It Around” tells a very long story about a lot of bands, most of which are unknown to the general public. The movie makes no effort to differentiate between these bands. It just assumes that: (1) You know them; and (2) You think they’re great. And maybe you do, but if you don’t, this is not the movie to introduce you to the scene.
Obscure bands are discussed as though they were the Who or Led Zeppelin: that is, household names. And the comments tend to be the same: They were political. They were outrageous. They were on the edge. Then we hear a snippet of the music, and it sounds like a lead singer yelling over a lot of loud guitars. The one exception is Green Day, which went on to the greatest success.
Talking heads appear, assuring us of the greatness of the various bands, but the people being interviewed are invariably members of other bands that were playing the East Bay at the time, people who were part of the scene. There’s no context, no critical interpretation, nothing to make the case, just the enthusiasm of people looking back on what they did in their 20s. It seems they had a good time.
And if you were there with them, in the clubs, you might have a good time with this movie. But for everyone else, this is a party you can skip.