Photo: Press
“This film documents my nine months with Green Day and the making of their album American Idiot”, is the opening statement that greets us, or “punk opera” as iconic frontman Billie Joe Armstrong would call it. This is Green Day: Heart Like A Hand Grenade - the story of the musical adventure of songs that would define a decade of punk.
"I'm ready to take that fucking message board down," spits an angry Billie Joe Armstrong at one point, before he imitates some online 'fans'. "'Could they actually make a record worse than Warning?' 'Kerplunk is the only good record they ever made', they say shit like that all the time. 'By the way, Tre Cool ruuules'. 'When they stay at home, they just get fat, they're only skinny on tour - they need to make a record like Dookie again'."
He was fully aware of the perception of Green Day at the time - a bloated and confused punk mess, way past their best. In order to survive, the band were reborn. Stripped away of any other preconceptions, the band fought back on the offensive - and American Idiot was fully loaded.
From the outset this is to be an indulgent watch for those with a special interest in the album that defines the Green Day we think of today - in the making of an album that take the anti-Bush failure of the American dream zeitgeist, and turn it into a globe-conquering whirlwind of an album that would define a generation.
We are taken on a track by track journey. Just 15 minutes in, “Well that’s one song”, laughs Billie Joe Armstrong, joined by drummer Tre Cool and bassist Mike Dirnt, as the last chord of what came to be the second track on the album, ‘Jesus of Suburbia’ rings out.
Directed and shot by John Roecker, co-produced by Billie Joe Armstrong, the seemingly amateur footage creates a homemade, multifaceted indulgence with three punk rock legends. Not just a behind-the-scenes portrait of the process behind the songs, and the stories within the songs, Roecker gives an up-close and personal experience of an album that defines the teenage years of millions.
“We like to write what’s fun for us to play”, explains Billie Joe attempting to lightening the mood when talking about the socio-political timing of the album and it’s significance to American and global cultures.
Tre Cool shows himself to be a hilarious necessity in the trio, impersonating Alabama natives, dressing up in sheets to resemble an Arab with a curious and certainly questionable German accent, and donning a Hugh Hefner-esque plush dressing gown - there’s never a dull moment. This, interspersed with inspired advice from Billie Joe, “I’m gonna teach everyone to drink responsibly…you gotta drink one beer, nurse it, then drink water”, to Tre’s pearl of wisdom, “So kids, when you get really hungover drink some more”, makes for an entertaining and endearing watch.
Ultimately, this is the ultimate nostalgia film for ‘American Idiot’ album obsessive created by an equally obsessed filmmaker. If you want to know what it’s like to be front row at a Green Day gig in ’05, jam with the band, be on the set of their video, you need this film in your life. Beyond that, it ultimately lacks the same gravitas and epochal scope of the album it documents. It comes off as more of a studio diary - it's like a sketch of a masterpiece.
- Heart Like A Hand Grenade is out now on DVD
Meanwhile, Green Day are working on a brand new album - with the producer saying that Billie Joe Armstrong is 'on top of his game'.
