Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1982)

Corinne Burns (Diane Lane) calls herself Third Degree Burn as the leader of the band The Stains with her sister Tracy Burns and her cousin Jessica McNeil (Laura Dern). Her mother recently died from cancer. Jessica's mother Linda (Christine Lahti) is her aunt. The girls attend a concert and Corinne talks her way onto the tour. The tour manager Lawnboy is trying to appease the conflict between aging singer Lou of The Metal Corpses and their young opening act The Looters led by Billy (Ray Winstone). The girls are not that good. When The Metal Corpses' guitarist turns up dead, Lawnboy makes the girls the new opening act. The girls become an overnight sensation for Croinne's attitude, her feminist tirades, and her edgy look championed by TV reporter Alicia Meeker despite the band's lack of musical skills. Her young female fans call themselves Skunks.This is a cult movie from the 80's. I do remember the trailer back in the day although I don't think it had much of a run in the theaters. This is about fame in the new age of MTV. It's a little dated now but it has a certain punky indie edge. The best part is Diane Lane. She has IT. She is this young girl with attitude. There are also some notable big screen newcomers. This movie thrives on Lane's attitude but it can get monotone.

Ladies and Gentleman, etc. is a rock and roll movie that coincided with the advent of mtv and a downward spiral of music videos making stars of lackluster musicians, sometimes overnight. Diane Lane is the lead as Corinne, a lost teenager seeking fame and fortune with her cousin and sister in a band with very little talent.Real life artists such as Fee Waybill of the Tubes and also members of the Clash and the Sex Pistols are used to give the film some authenticity. Corinne(Lane) leaves home after the untimely death of her mother to hit the road on a bus with the aforementioned punk rockers. The driver of the bus is a philosophical Jamaican Bob Marley type constantly spouting "ja rastafari." Corinne unveils a black and white "skunk" hairstyle, booty shorts, and see through blouse, inspiring adolescent female followers to copy her fashion statement. Along the way, romance and career conflict ensue, but the show must go on and it does. Some of the music is good due to punkers Steve Jones and Fee Waybill and Diane Lane is thoroughly convincing as the troubled young rebel; she makes Ladies and worthwhile.

Ah, punk rock, how it came, saw, went, came back again, and maybe another time, and is now in so many varieties that one could just spend an entire semester in college studying all of the bands that have come from the early to mid 70s and beyond. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains, is a satirical document of the punk rock scene, but it works better as just flat-out punk and/or new-wave rock than as satire. The writer tries for a Network approach: the media latches on to The Fabulous Stains, a trio girl group started by Corrine Burns (aka Third-Degree Burns) with her sister and cousin, who aren't very talented but have Corrine as their wont-take-no-s*** lead singer with crazy hair and a "I don't put out" slogan while wearing skimpy clothes.Because apparently every single punk girl watches the nightly news and believes every single word they say, suddenly the Stains have a HUGE fan-base of lemming-like girls who latch onto every word of their song "Waste my time" and, soon after, their rip-off cover of the Looters' "The Professionals", the real Brit punk rock group touring as the lead group following (original headliner) aging rock group's bitter demise. The script takes the point of view that it's probably as much the audience's fault, if not more-so, than the exploitation by the media, which was not uncommon to happen to certain bands (it even happened to the Sex Pistols to a degree, though the bulk of hype came about after they broke up). This part is clever but also not clever by half; we've seen this quick rise-and-fall story before and there's not a whole lot that's fresh that's brought to the table creatively, except for the cynical aspect that if you look pretty and bad and don't give a bleep you'll make it with a rip-off single that most of the audience doesn't understand anyway.And yet for whatever flaws the film might have director Lou Adler aptly displays, amusingly and with a deft skill at capturing young-and-old rocker angst, life in the ever changing rock scene and specifically punk rock. While it's a given a band will be kick-ass if two members of the Pistols and Paul Simonen of the Clash are in it, as they are in the Looters with a young Ray Winstone as ornery front-man (one of his most compelling performances as a "tough" guy), it will have some punk rock cred. But very young Diane Lane and even younger Laura Dern bring some credibility of their own, and open up another sight for aficionados of the attitude and mood of punk rock, much like the attitude and mood of film-noir more than a real genre, is punk rock for girls. Inspiration for the likes of the Go-Go's can be seen here as "birds" as Winstone says can rock as hard, or just with enough spirit, while also not being too full of crap.That's the interesting thing too in Fabulous Stains, what makes it more interesting as a punk rock flick than a satire: when it's at its best, like Suburbia did as well, we get a personal and sad look at wayward youth with nothing else but music, be that they can't read like Winstone's Billy or just have a parent that's dead like Corrine's father ("Died in war, beep, got lot of money, beep"). It's a fine little nugget of music/movie lore.

yes, what I would give for that. I suppose it doesn't exist.Great tune "Professional" during the end credits. And who was actually performing this version? What is interesting is that I keep thinking of this movie having recently seen Prey for Rock and Roll where Gershon is simply the "It Girl" Rock-n-Roll Star. Starting with the Crissy Hinde sound but way throatier/garagier and adding in some Joan Jett attitude/leather and the result is fantastic! ...and also reminds me of Juliette Lewis performing in Strange Days. No surprise she now has a band....Picture Claire puts them both together, Lewis and Gershon, I forget who sings the credits...