Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows FanStore News Showtimes

Kill Your Idols

Play trailer Poster for Kill Your Idols 2004 1h 15m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
38% Tomatometer 13 Reviews 49% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
This documentary combines interviews and concert footage for an in-depth look at the history of No Wave, an aggressive flavor of underground rock music born in New York City in the 1980s. Subjects run the gamut from Glenn Branca and his influential all-guitar orchestra to the undulating minimalist punk of Suicide and the art-rock experimentation of Sonic Youth. The filmmakers also catch up with contemporary bands inspired by No Wave, including Liars, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Gogol Bordello.

Critics Reviews

View All (13) Critics Reviews
Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly Kill Your Idols then takes a misguided swerve into the current downtown New York rock scene, so that it can spend more time preaching about the anarchy of the good old days than it does revealing them. Rated: C Jul 12, 2006 Full Review Lou Lumenick New York Post The documentary enters more dubious territory when it tries to present today's more consumer-friendly post-punkers (like the Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs) as some sort of successors. Rated: 2/4 Jul 7, 2006 Full Review Elizabeth Weitzman New York Daily News ...an atonal love letter to a single corner of the culture - one built, in the words of singer Lydia Lunch, on 'beauty and truth and filth.' Rated: 2.5/4 Jul 7, 2006 Full Review Shawn Levy Oregonian This is little more than a sketchy portrait of two fascinating cultural moments with only geography and 70-ish minutes of celluloid connecting them. Rated: C+ Sep 1, 2006 Full Review Chris Barsanti Film Journal International Discordant documentary on New York's "No Wave" art-punk music scene begins in fertile territory but squanders everything with a lengthy and ill-considered comparison to more recent bands. Jul 11, 2006 Full Review Eric Lurio Greenwich Village Gazette The film is well done, capturing a brief, unimportant moment in musical history. Rated: 2.5/5 Jul 8, 2006 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (86) audience reviews
Audience Member Some good interviews, particularly from participants in the era. But the attempt to tie in with then-modern 2002 NYC hipster rock scene felt forced and didn't reveal anything interesting. Like, I like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but their segments (filled to the brim with "like", "um", and other placeholder phrases) could only be considered interesting to someone who would describe the YYYs as their favorite band. I get what the documentary was trying to do in opening a dialogue between two eras of NY alternative music, but it feels forced and I suspect that neither era of musicians would be talking about the other era without pointed questions to that effect. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member In bed sick and my 'shark week' just came to town so I'm pissed off and sick at the same/insane time. However just watched this film and enjoyed it..plus LL represents herself well. I've been a fan going back to teenage Jesus and Richard Kern. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Slow start but gets quite interesting in the middle (for a whippersnapper like me) as sonic youth and swans appear. Some incredibly scathing reviews of the early 2000's NYC scene from the old guard and interesting conversations with both sides. Well worth the watch. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Interesting topic although incoherent in many areas. My biggest issue absolutely is the terrible sound and the early 90s film student cinematography. Plain terrible! This film's saving grace is the first 1/3rd of the movie focusing on the early No Wave scene. I really wished the film would have focused on the whole history and then focused maybe very little on the latter influence it had instead of an outright comparison. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review Audience Member Count how many times Karen says "like" in one interview.... *bangs head against wall* Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member I Love this documentary, and I Love all these bands. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Kill Your Idols

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

Show Less Cast & Crew Show More Cast & Crew

More Like This

View All Best Movies to Stream at Home
Metal: A Headbanger's Journey 90% 91% Metal: A Headbanger's Journey Watchlist End of the Century 95% 94% End of the Century Watchlist We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen 94% 95% We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen Watchlist DIG! 89% 90% DIG! Watchlist Mayor of the Sunset Strip 87% 78% Mayor of the Sunset Strip Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More
View All Kill Your Idols photos

Kill Your Idols

Kill Your Idols (2004) Kill Your Idols (2004) Kill Your Idols (2004) Kill Your Idols (2004) Kill Your Idols (2004) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis This documentary combines interviews and concert footage for an in-depth look at the history of No Wave, an aggressive flavor of underground rock music born in New York City in the 1980s. Subjects run the gamut from Glenn Branca and his influential all-guitar orchestra to the undulating minimalist punk of Suicide and the art-rock experimentation of Sonic Youth. The filmmakers also catch up with contemporary bands inspired by No Wave, including Liars, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Gogol Bordello.
Director
S.A. Crary
Producer
S.A. Crary
Production Co
Hunger Artist
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Rerelease Date (Theaters)
Jul 7, 2006
Release Date (DVD)
Aug 29, 2006
Box Office (Gross USA)
$7.8K
Runtime
1h 15m