For those who might criticize a review title like this, let’s remember what we’re talking about: the legendary rock band, Hole. The band’s front woman Courtney Love was an unabashed finger in the face of feminism, society, and the male-dominated world of rock. Her persona and the name of her band itself dare you to write headlines like the one above. But in the story of Hit So Hard, love steps aside to let one of her band mates reenter the spotlight. Patty Schemel was the beat behind one of the most vulgarly named rock bands that ever took to the stage.
The documentary is directed by P. David Ebersole and follows the courtship, birth, life, death, and afterlife of Hole through the lens of drummer Patty Schemel. The story is overflowing with interviews from nearly all of the most influential female percussionists in rock history: Gina Schock (The Go-Gos), Debbi Peterson (The Bangles), Kate Schellenbach (Beastie Boys and Luscious Jackson), Alice de Buhr (Fanny), and numerous other powerhouse female rockers. Told by the people involved inside and out, we witness the party, the music, the drugs, the fame, and the predictably despicable ending of Schemel’s career with Hole. And we witness everything, from her mother talking about her lesbianism to candid discussions about her fall from rock goddess to literally being a crack whore. In many ways, this film is only possible by happenstance. Seeded throughout are gratuitously personal glimpses into the private lives of both Hole and Kurt Cobain’s Nirvana.
Many grunge rockers, or any rockers for that matter, wouldn’t consider entering a movie house to see a documentary. If there were a figure of grunge worth considering it, Patty Schemel would be that someone. This movie is an invitation to come out of our comfort zones and peek inside Patty’s intimate world and take a good, hard, close look at what it was like to live in her Hole.
From the onset, you’re bombarded with breakneck speed storytelling. Every four minutes or so you’re treated to titles as if you were getting song titles plucked from the lyrics of the film. Far from distracting, this motif helps drive the pacing. Things move so quickly that you’re made to wonder if, like the band, the film can sustain the fast and feverish storytelling or, if it would destroy itself like Nirvana or fizzle out like Hole. For most of the film the screen is split in half allowing you to live with one eye in present and one in the past, a glimpse at the glory days mentality of a has-been life.
The film has an obvious connection problem. Young audiences who never lived through Nirvana and the death of Cobain will feel a detached reverence the same many mid-aged audiences would if they were watching a documentary about the death of Lennon. But for audiences who do remember, this film is so thoroughly bathed in the smell of nostalgia that you can taste the bitter chemicals on your tongue.
The most relevant criticism is that the two halves of the film are somewhat divorced from one another. The story of Schemel’s music career and her rehab career are united only because they both happened to Schemel. That being said, the story would be unfinished without both its halves. It would also be easy to lambast the film for prostituting home footage of the beloved Cobain. However, the use of these images never crosses a line where they are gratuitous enough to sell out the integrity of the project. The film makes every effort to not capitalize on the death of a beloved music figure. Even though not quite a “great” documentary, it is still a very good one. And, while the story is raw and doesn’t leave you cheering, you’re satisfied in the end. The film succeeds in displaying her win, not as a glamorous return to fame, but to a content place that lets you know she’s going to be ok.
Rating: The intimate fall of a rock goddess and her life in a Hole 8/10
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