GFF 2012: Bob and the Monster

To be a junkie in L.A.’s eighties rock scene “was so important, it was so de rigueur,” drawls Courtney Love in new documentary Bob and the Monster. This is the dangerously flippant caldron of narcotics Bob Forrest found himself in while lead singer of Thelonious Monster. Now post addiction we see him in the admirable guise of drug counsellor. This redemptive story and its telling are nothing new. The cocktail of photo stills, grainy live footage, and talking heads seems a little tired now, even if those heads include Anthony Kiedis and Flea. The claymation flashbacks of drugged-up depravity feel fresh and climbing out of the cliché is the interesting story of Bob the man. The bookends of his fractured youth and current fight against America’s pharmaceutical addiction cures (oh the horrible irony) prove engaging. This is a nostalgic picture of a scene where hedonism and arrogance were tragically entwined. A tale of people who never truly wanted to die, they just refused to believe they ever would. [Alan Bett]