All of us have a film that we like despite its flaws. Admit it. Somewhere in your DVD library is a guilty pleasure; a film that only you truly appreciate. Some of us have more than others. For me, generally my guilty pleasures are horror films however recently I was asked to review the DVD release of Half-Cocked, an independent film shot with musicians instead of actors back in 1994 and Radiation, a companion film shot during the promotional tour for the original film. Both films are flawed in many ways but for me they did something that few films have done in the last twenty years. They made me walk away feeling different after having watched them.

What I mean is I didn’t just feel like I’d been entertained. I felt like I’d been changed somehow. Like my life was somehow altered. I’m almost entirely sure that I will be one of a minute number of people who will react this way to these films, but still, I’m the one writing this review. If you think they suck, write your own.

Half-Cocked is the story of a girl named Tara, just out of high school who doesn’t feel like she fits in. She’s just moved out of her parents’ house into a house full of artists, struggling musicians and freaks who are all scraping by just to eat.

Now I realize after writing that last paragraph that some of you (Shawn, I’m looking your way) will say, “That’s why you identify with it… because deep down inside you’re like a little lost girl.” That’s not it at all. My inner lost girl was not touched in the least by this story… and don’t even think about making a joke about me touching my inner lost girl.

The thing is Tara decides to take action instead of just wandering around feeling lost. Tired of feeling the pressure from her family to conform, she takes off by stealing her parents van, all of her brother’s bands’ music equipment and hitting the road with four friends to try to make it as a rock band. The catch of course being that none of them can play an instrument. Half-Cocked works on two levels. One it’s a very funny commentary on the 1990’s indie-music scene. Secondly, it’s a pretty dead on depiction of just how frustrating and mind-numbing life with a band on the road can be.

The film is set in Tennessee with the band, named Half-Cocked, making stops in big cities like Chattanooga and Knoxville among others. The scenes filmed in clubs showing the crowd reacting to the performance of this pseudo-band are amazingly accurate. The band is all over the place with people not knowing much more than a chord or two. At one point the percussion becomes one person breaking beer bottles over a trashcan. The camera pans to the crowd where a few people nod their heads along while many others just gawk. After the performance a member of the headlining band comes over and tells them how great they are. This is funny, funny stuff.

When that same band member takes Half-Cocked in for the next few days, feeding them and giving them pointers on how to tune and set up their instruments, it’s a reminder of how supportive the indie community was in the early 1990’s. The thing is, the area where Half-Cocked is supposedly playing actually did have its share of great indie bands, including one of my favorites, Superdrag. When I interviewed them back in 2000, they talked about how little the scene in Tennessee was and Half-Cocked seems to back that up. Each town the band plays in seems to have only a handful of people who will come out to a show, but still through T-shirt sales and the occasional handout, the band seems to make it.

As Half-Cocked travel from town to town, they slowly learn about the perils of the road: club owners who don’t pay, promoters who don’t come through, etc. With each new obstacle the band begins unraveling a little more. When finally they are confronted with a waitress who suggests they rob the restaurant since she’s the only employee there and she thinks the management are all assholes, the majority of the band decide to take her up on it for a measly $60.00. I myself would have gladly done that for $60.00 back when I was a struggling musician in the mid-1990’s.

By the end of the movie, with the police on their trail for the stolen equipment, Tara and her friends have finally become a true band, not just because they can play their instruments and have written some decent songs, but because they are sticking together and relying on each other for support. It’s a great transformation to witness and a lot of fun getting there.

The drawbacks though are that in the process, you have to put up with some pretty bad acting. All of the stars of Half-Cocked are musicians by trade. Tara in particular will make you think back to your own late-teens/early-twenties and squirm thinking, “was I that much of a tool?” Part of me wanted to smack some life into her myself. The dialogue is sometimes a bit too precious also, but mostly this is a very worthwhile film that left me really wishing I was back in my 20’s, sleeping on a friend’s garage floor with only a half pack of cigarettes and a bag of day old bagels to get me through the end of the week.

Immediately after watching Half-Cocked, I decided to watch Radiation and what a one-two punch that ended up being. Radiation follows Spanish promoter Unai as he prepares to go on tour with the band Come (playing themselves). Almost immediately, the tour falls through and Unai (who makes most of his money selling speed on the tour) is stuck owing a ton of money with no way to make it up. He heads out anyway with a performance artist who was scheduled to open the shows and makes his way across Spain against all odds.

Where Half-Cocked was full of hope and had you pulling for the band, Radiation is much darker. Unai is a hard character to sympathize with and as he continues to dig himself in deeper and deeper, it becomes obvious that there will be no happy way out of this film. The final scene in particular left me feeling shell-shocked.

Radiation is a full 25 minutes shorter than Half-Cocked but it packs a much more powerful punch. The acting is superb here and the story moves along at a good, brisk pace. Of the two films, I liked this one much better.

Presentation
Both films are shot on 16mm film. Half-Cocked is shot in black and white while Radiation is shot in color. Neither are widescreen affairs and both prints bear some subtle marks but nothing that will distract much from viewing. The sound here is great and the soundtracks to both films are fantastic. The Half-Cocked soundtrack is available still from Matador and I can’t wait to hear it. I wish the Radiation soundtrack was available as well with the film sporting performances by Come, Stereolab and Will Oldham.

Extras
Aside from the two films, this disc contains some interesting extras. The first is Lost Book which contains an unpublished book of photographs by Michael Galinsky (director of photography, co-writer and co-director on both films). There is some good stuff in here and the music is good also (by Drop Ceiling).

Next up is Sean Meadows Book which is an unpublished book of photos by Sean Meadows, one of the actors from Radiation. This one is good also and again, the music (this time by Red House Blues) is good.

Scraps is yet another collection of Galinsky photos, this time accompanied by some really fucking annoying spoken word by multiple offenders. Watch it with the mute button on if you must.

The Spaceheads video is actually really damn good. It’s directed by Suki Hawley (co-director and co-writer for both films). I’m trying to figure out a way to rip this from the DVD and get my iPod rocking with some Spaceheads tunes.

Probably the best of the extra features though is Lost in Spain which chronicles the making of both films. This is exceptionally interesting because of how these films were shot. Both were done while on tour with musical acts and in the case of Radiation it was done while touring with a film festival and a rock show. When you see the amount of work and the many ways this could have gone wrong, you will appreciate both films even more.

Musical Out-takes from Half-Cocked is just that. I couldn’t make it through this entire feature. I’d suggest ordering the soundtrack.

The Bottom Line
Despite the fact that the acting is spotty in places, the dialogue is at times forced and the film quality is occasionally lacking, I loved both of these films. I can’t say that everyone else will, but anyone who has ever been in a band or part of a music “scene” should probably check both of these out, especially Radiation.