The Right Side of My Brain(1985)d/R. Kern

Underground icon and Queen of No Wave,Lydia Lunch has always been a pleasurable treasure to me.Whether she's screeching a minute's worth of lyrical disdain over noisy chaos,being fucked by a gun on camera,or at a podium reciting her angry barbed prose,I'm there,dudes.Hell,I'm shoving my way right up to the front,where I can drink it all in greedily.So naturally when she collaborated on this independent meisterwerk with R. Kern,one of my favorite NY filmmakers,I was right there at Kim's in the East Village to grab up the VHS all those years ago,and couldn't wait to bear witness for myself.Over twenty years later,it hasn't lost its edge,and remains an important film and an underground classic,to be sure.

New York,Lydia Lunch,Super 8 film,it really doesn't get any better than this.
Our heroine(villainess?)Lydia delivers a dreamy monologue over a bleak and grainy Super 8 portrait of the uncomfortable desires that consume her,be she awake or asleep.The thrill of being at the mercy of another's whimsy,and the genuine desire to be abused if only to feel alive at the moment of the abhorrent act itself,replacing the feelings of nothingness her character experiences when not being maltreated.To illustrate the all-consuming lust,she gets abused and roughhoused on camera by a cornucopia of seedy undesirables,of varying underground importance.In between these violent vignettes she caresses and strokes herself,sometimes bare-chested in bed,sometimes wrapped in a towel,longing for her next liason.The girl can't help it.

The director,R. Kern,making a memorable appearance.
The standout scenes play out thusly:R. Kern himself smokes a cigarette before placing both barrels of a shotgun between the girl's legs,which evokes arousal instead of the seemingly natural fear she should exude.Then Clint Ruin,a gritty-looking,pouty rail of a man,squeezes himself until he pulls the girl towards him and forces her to fellate him,only to push her away as the passion inside her grows.Suddenly she's being chased through a wooded area by none other than Black Flag frontman Henry Rollins himself!He chases her into a house where he pins her against the wall,kissing her roughly as a small blonde boy looks on.His affection turns rough,and the boy attacks Rollins with a knife,causing him to pick Lydia's defender up and plaster him against the ceiling.Lunch regains his attention by slapping him until he once again turns his violence on her,pinning her to the bed and beating her unconscious then leaving.The boy comes back into the bedroom and takes the opportunity to get a free look up her shirt.In the final sequence,Lydia combines sensuality and violence with an asian girl,caressing her body and kissing her before hanging the poor thing on hooks.Classic stuff.

Clint Ruin,about to be a very lucky son of a bitch.
Thanks to the folks at MVD,you can pick this and all the other Kern shorts up in one region zero set,Hardcore:The Films of Richard Kern, for under 25 bucks.The avant garde soundtrack by Lydia Lunch and Foetus(Thirlwell/Ruin)here is truly exceptional.Kern,apart from his photography and transgressive film shorts,has most recently done music videos for The Breeders,Unsane,Cop Shoot Cop,King Missile,and most recently,Marilyn Manson.He should take the directorial chair again soon,in my opinion.If you've yet to sit down to his visions,do it,whether you love them or hate them,I guarantee you won't be able to walk away without a definite opinion.I give Right Side the highest Wopsploitation rating:

S.O.A./Black Flag frontman,Henry Rollins,pre-muscles and haircut,gets in on the misogynistic fun.