A Fat Wreck tries to give a quick history of Fat Wreck Chords as it celebrates its 25th anniversary. Having grown up and listened to a fair bit of the artists initially signed to Fat the subject matter seemed like it would appeal to me.
It quickly becomes apparent that this isn't a documentary so much as it is a bunch of guys sitting around and telling stories about how they got signed to Fat and why it's awesome. It's not that the stories aren't entertaining (for the most part they are), or that the interviewees are boring (they're not), but it gets repetitive after a while. It's more or less the same format for the first 2/3 of the movie. Band A was discovered, released X number of albums, had this and that to say about Fat Mike and Fat records, move on to band B.
There's not enough in there about the current state of Fat, the current bands or anything like that. In fact, outside of the first 10 years of the label, very little attention is paid to other groups, almost unfairly.
The subject matter may have made for a better book, with the ability to absorb in small chunks of anecdotes than as a documentary.
It quickly becomes apparent that this isn't a documentary so much as it is a bunch of guys sitting around and telling stories about how they got signed to Fat and why it's awesome. It's not that the stories aren't entertaining (for the most part they are), or that the interviewees are boring (they're not), but it gets repetitive after a while. It's more or less the same format for the first 2/3 of the movie. Band A was discovered, released X number of albums, had this and that to say about Fat Mike and Fat records, move on to band B.
There's not enough in there about the current state of Fat, the current bands or anything like that. In fact, outside of the first 10 years of the label, very little attention is paid to other groups, almost unfairly.
The subject matter may have made for a better book, with the ability to absorb in small chunks of anecdotes than as a documentary.