Malcolm McDowell gets plenty crazy as rock god Reggie Wanker in Allan Arkush’s Get Crazy
GET CRAZY (Allan Arkush, 1983)
Metrograph
7 Ludlow St. between Canal & Hester Sts.
Friday, October 22, 3:30
Series runs through October 24
212-660-0312
nyc.metrograph.com
One of the most underrated, little-seen rock-and-roll movies ever made, Get Crazy should be a cult classic. Directed by Allan (Rock ‘n’ Roll High School) Arkush, Get Crazy evokes the closing of the Fillmore East as Neil Allen (Daniel Stern) and Willy Loman (Gail Edwards) help put together a New Year’s Eve farewell concert for the beloved Saturn Theater, which the conniving Colin Beverly (Ed Begley Jr.) is trying to steal out from under Max Wolfe (Allen Garfield). Among the special guests at the show are Bill Henderson as the Muddy Waters clone King Blues, Captain Cloud (Howard Kaylan of the Turtles) and the Rainbow Telegraph, and Nada (Kid Creole Coconut Lori Eastside) with Piggy (Lee Ving of Fear), but the movie is stolen by Malcolm McDowell as the Mick Jagger ripoff Reggie Wanker, who literally lets his member do the talking, and Lou Reed as the Dylan/Donovan homage Auden, a folksinger desperate to write a tune before the show, so he spends most of the film riding around in a cab, rambling on about whatever is right in front of him. And be sure to keep an eye out for John Densmore, Fabian, Bobby Sherman, Clint Howard, Linnea Quigley, and Paul Bartel. In addition to the live numbers, the soundtrack includes songs by Sparks, Marshall Crenshaw, the Ramones, and Reed, whose awesome “Little Sister” plays over the closing credits.
Extremely silly but still loads of fun, Get Crazy is screening October 22 at 3:30 at Metrograph in the well-titled party series “Get Crazy,” which continues through October 24 with Olivier Assayas’s Cold Water, Nima Nourizadeh’s Project X, and Doug Liman’s Go.