Overview: David Markey’s Desperate Teenage Lovedolls (1984) and its sequel Lovedolls Superstar (1986), two underground Super-8 cult films together for the first time, rebuilt and remastered in UHD. Chronicling the rise and fall and the subsequent resurrection in the sequel of the fictitious all girl band, the Lovedolls.

Kind of an all-girl Spinal Tap said the Los Angeles Reader at the time of release. The positive critical response didn’t stop there. This is worthy of a Joan Crawford vehicle chimed The Village Voice.

Blu-ray Verdict: Made on a micro-budget and cast with members of the Los Angeles punk scene (Redd Kross, Black Flag etc.), shot guerrilla-style on the streets of Hollywood and Santa Monica and Venice. This was a true Do-It-Yourself effort, made for the ragged fellow travelers on the scene at the time.

It was also a testimony to inventiveness - made by disaffected kids without much resource, raised on junk food and trash television. The rags to riches story is one of classic Hollywood lore with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Produced for paltry $250.00, the film inspired a sequel with a budget 40 times that amount, made possible by Desperate Teenage Lovedolls success.

Desperate Teenage Lovedolls is one of the great unheralded no-budget movies. It deserves to be put on a shelf with Jim Van Bebber’s Deadbeat At Dawn, Scooter McCrae’s Shatter Dead, Buddy Giovinazzo’s Combat Shock, and John Waters’s Mondo Trasho. While not quite as extreme as any of those masterpieces, it has a curious naivety and punk-rock verve that makes it irresistible.

The story follows the rise and fall of a girl punk rock band from the gutter to the stars and back. It features all the clichés - sleazy managers, drugs, murder, gang fights, Felix the cat, you name it. There’s plenty of great punk rock on the soundtrack, and Redd Kross both back the Love Dolls and play roles in the movie. The whole thing manages to wrap up in well over an hour, leaving us wanting more.

Lovedolls Superstar was an even more ambitious project with more expansive, if not completely out-there story telling. The parodies were even more pointed, confronting pop and rock culture of the time. No one was spared; from Bruce Springsteen to Billy Jack, from feminism to cult behavior, and to punk rock itself. They were unafraid to poke fun at themselves!

Hard to appreciate unless you were in the late 80’s punk scene. Lovedolls Forever is a time capsule, to be sure. It looks like a bunch of friends and a cam border made a half-baked movie, only somehow got Jello Biafra to make a cameo. This is because in the 80’s, the punk scene wasn’t made up of millionaire rock stars like Green Day.

This is how bands like Bad Religion and Black Flag were involved with the first one, Desperate Teenage Lovedolls. Anyway, the movie itself is stupid, poorly acted, and poorly written. Everything about this movie is amateurish even to an amateur. BUT it’s fun and has a great soundtrack. The key is fun. It doesn’t think too much of itself, doesn’t try to say too much, and isn’t boring.

Funnily enough, I recently saw the director’s cut, and there was definitely fat to trim. And how the heck did they get away with so many copyright infringements? I guess because nobody important ever saw this movie. Charles Manson’s Garbage Dump, KISS’s God of Thunder, Give Peace a Chance, A Day in the Life?! This is Guerilla filmmaking at its bloody brilliant finest!

The Lovedolls films offer an antithesis to the squeaky clean, conservative 1980’s America. They display just how far you can go with very little. David Markey would go on to helm many film projects, notably documenting the Sonic Youth / Nirvana tour in 1991 The Year Punk Broke.

Bonus Materials:
4K Restorations from the Original Super-8 Film Masters
Desperate Teenage Lovedolls 40th Anniversary Panel (35 min.) - LA Times’ Mark Olsen conducts Q&A with director David Markey and stars Jennifer Schwartz, Steven McDonald, and Tracey Lea

Lovedolls Superstar at American Cinematheque, Egyptian Theater, Hollywood Commentary Tracks with director David Markey, producer Jordan Schwartz & stars Jeffrey McDonald, Steve McDonald, and Jennifer Schwartz
Redd Kross Ballad of a Lovedoll Music Video
Deleted Scenes & Alt Takes
Making of Featurette
New Stereo & 5.1 Audio Mixes
Remastered Theatrical Trailers