if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

So what is this? A quite conventional musical documentary embedding a bands history within a bigger history of society and musical appearances and hereby constantly arguing the uniqueness, the coolness and the relevance of The Stooges and their professional anti-professionalism. It has the same sort of bohemian snobbish feeling to it I already found disgusting in ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE: all this bitter mystifying praise of the „real", „authentic", „good", „true", etc., artistic stuff within a devilish sell-out Disneyland world is just soo much emphasized that it's actually ridiculing itself. But at the same time it is a fanboy work and a work of friendship, a film not only about the band, but a film in dedication for the band, a gift, an openly political and explicitly personal attempt to immortalize the musicians, communists, existentialists, drug users and drug abusers around Iggy Pop: „The Stooges Forever!", it says on the gong starting and finishing the film. And this is basically the sole purpose the film is made for and this is what adds quite a bit of intimidating intimacy to it, making it more like a letter to Iggy only masked as this educational musical documentary it is trying to be at its surface. This is no offense: The naive and sincere face under the mask is what turns the film into touching cinema, after all. And the sound, well, the sound made me heart jump around hard every once in a while.

Growing up in the sixties and seventies we were exposed to a ton of music and musical styles that seem lacking in today's world. At any time you could turn on the radio and find Frank Sinatra, Black Sabbath and Sly and the Family Stone all on the same channel. Today we tend to compartmentalize music into sub-genres and limit listening to only what we love without exposure to anything different. Had that been the case back then music would never have evolved and led to different styles. Such was the case with the Detroit band known as The Stooges.This documentary follows the early beginnings through to the last moments of the Stooges career along with their front man Iggy Pop. It runs like most rock documentaries in that it follows the timeline, shows them performing and combines that with interviews past and present to form a cohesive of the band start to finish.As with most bands that began in the sixties there is plenty of open talk about the drugs they took from marijuana to acid to heroin. It doesn't glorify the use of those drugs but it was a part of the lifestyle they lived. It was a part of the rock culture at the time and the fact they survived those days without serious overdose or multiple deaths shows it didn't always end that way. That they don't discourage or encourage the use of drugs shows a more even keel in the discussion rather than aging rock stars saying "I did this but you shouldn't", something most rock docs seem to do. It becomes a hollow piece of advice in those.The sound of the Stooges was raw and it was powerful and that's what drew fans to them and their music. I got the sense that this stemmed from their home base of Detroit, of being exposed to that working class atmosphere, of listening to the hammering of metal in factories in the area. Many bands that came from the area were exposed to the same thing and it is apparent in the sound of bands like Grand Funk, Alice Cooper, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent and The Stooges. But The Stooges sounds was rawer than most with the exception of perhaps MC5 who played a major role in their early years as seen here.This sound The Stooges created influenced so many bands and was also part of the foundation for the next big genre of rock music to come, punk. Their influence can be heard and is commented on in the film with their style replicating in bands like The Ramones, Sex Pistols, Sonic Youth and more. It was hard, it was fast, it was loud and it was raw. That word comes up a lot when thinking about The Stooges and deservedly so.The movie doesn't spend any time discussing the solo career of Iggy Pop and actually that turns out to be a good thing and goes along with what he says in the film. He talks about how the band were true Communists when they began, not in the sense of political ideology but in that they shared and shared alike. Money coming in was divided evenly. This extended to their return to the stage in 2003 at Coachella where he was offered so much to perform and said they'd have to triple the amount so each band member would get the same. To his surprise the backers agreed and they played.The movie does give a historical perspective of the band and that's great that a new generation will possibly find the band through the film. Many will be surprised at how influential they were. The biggest surprise in the film for me was that while directed by Jim Jarmusch his style of filmmaking isn't on display here making the film about himself instead of the band. Rather he sticks to the straight forward format used in most rock docs and it pays off in the end.As far as rock docs go this one is among the better that I've seen. It tells the story of its focus, The Stooges, rather than become a movie about stylistic choices of the director. It moves along from start to finish for the band and offers them in performance all along the way. It presents the band and its individual members in a respective tone allowing each to speak never giving one more on screen time than the rest with perhaps the exception in a small amount to Iggy. It doesn't glamourize nor demonize the band. It just lets the music do the talking. And what powerful talking it does.

This plodding, by-the-numbers doc manages to make the Stooges (of all bands) seem boring. I know a LOT about the band and their music, and I found this film to be stiff and fairly dull; I can't imagine anyone unfamiliar with the Stooges sticking it out.The first big problem is that Jarmusch proceeds with the assumption that the viewer reveres the Stooges as much as he does. The film doesn't really bother to make an argument for their greatness, or even discuss the specifics their music much, beyond the making of the first album. Instead, it focuses on superficial details like what city they were in at any given time; light music-biz gossip, etc. It's almost absurd how little is said about the aesthetics of "Fun House" and "Raw Power." Usually, docs like this will have other rock luminaries and music critics talking about how the subject artist inspired them personally, made a mark on rock history, etc. That approach is absent here. Mike Watt is interviewed at length, but only to go over the minute details of how the band reunited in the 2000s. Much is said about how J. Mascis was instrumental in pulling the guys back together -- why is he not on camera, talking about what their music meant to him? (Danny Fields also shows up, to recount some stories told at greater length in the "Please Kill Me" book... this is cool, as far as it goes.) Instead of making a case for the Stooges' place in the pantheon, Jarmusch just plays a montage of "punk" album covers (y'know, because the Stooges "inspired punk"), followed by clips of younger bands covering their songs. It makes the Stooges seem like a smaller and much less consequential band than they were... you come away with the impression of a minor act that recorded a few songs people like.Another strange choice is to begin the doc at a "turning point" in the band's career, then go back to the beginning and tell the story up to that point (and beyond it). This is a very common approach in documentaries and biographies... but in this case, the "turning point" is the band's dissolution in the early '70s (after "Fun House"). The film begins by presenting a drugged-out, worn-out, falling-apart group of guys, and then expects the viewer to care how they got to that (not very interesting or unique) point(?) Once the chronological story line does kick in, it proceeds without tension or suspense. Jarmusch compensates for a lack of extensive archival footage by frequently throwing in old film clips, apparently in an attempt to "humorously" illustrate what interviewees are saying... I found this move to feel obvious and "smug."A final problem is the extent to which Jarmusch relies on recent interviews conducted with Iggy. He seems to have simply turned on the camera and let Iggy drone on, and then included big chunks of the footage in the doc. Let's just say that it does not do the film, or Iggy himself, any favors.I can't remember ever before watching a documentary about a respected band or artist, and coming away less of a fan than I was going in... but somehow, "Gimme Danger" managed to achieve that.

This is a shallow film about a shallow (albeit likable) man, full of shallow references to events that would only be interesting to people who are already fans of the band. As a documentary filmmaker myself, I would've left 75% of this film on the cutting room floor. Did you know Iggy once saw John Wayne driving down the street in LA? ...Well, he *thinks* it was John Wayne... I wouldn't put that drivel in a god damn Facebook post, much less a documentary film. I have to believe there was some depth to be found in the life and lessons of Iggy and the Stooges, but its all wasted on Jarmusch. This is nothing but a vanity piece made by fans for fans. It will be an utterly forgotten film with zero relevance for the world beyond Iggy/Stooges fans. This isn't to say that the Stooges weren't a very relevant band. I am convinced they were. But that doesn't make for an interesting film, and its essentially the only message conveyed. I enjoyed looking at Iggy's face for over an hour, but after 30 minutes being impressed at how well that man has aged, despite a lifetime of abusing his body, there was nothing left to ponder. Better to spend your time on films that don't simply elevate celebrity, but dig into deeper issues, like the "Friends Forever" documentary about a pair of musicians who never achieve any fame, unintentionally illustrating that life is about the journey, not the destination. That film was made by an auteur, not a fanboy, who exposes the emptiness of pursuing fame, sex, drugs, and everything else that Iggy and the Stooges seemingly glorified. Unless you're in the mood for a shallow fluff piece, that would be a better use of your time.