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Teenage Pete Perkowitz and friends have formed a band, the Farmingdale
Sound Machine, a band that plays underground/noise sort of music - and
somehow they attract the attention of music promoter Carlton J. Lepus, who
promises them a big career, but ultimately wants to change them, mold them
according to his own vision. Soon, conflicts within the band break out,
conflicts that lead to fights and even murder ... Pete Perkowitz though,
who has been raised by his alcoholic dad, is also a problem child, and
ultimately he is sent to Doctor Yamanouchi for treatment - who is more
interested though in hypnotizing the teen into repeatedly temporarily
changing into a homicidal monster more than anything else - and thus, dead
bodies are soon piling up ... Ultimately though, Perkowit gets so
frustrated by his life that he decides to kill himself - also to bring
this film to an end (his own words) - but not before writing a 14-page
suicide note/confession/life story that could have changed everything ...
would it not have landed in the hands of Carlton J. Lepus, who decides to
burn it to not collide with his future plans for the Farmingdale Sound
Machine. What a weird, almost triplike film: Made up from
colour as well as black and white footage, stock footage of every kind,
animation sequences, and even sequences featuring hand puppets, this movie
walks the thin (non-existing) line between fake documentary and
trash/monster movie, videoclip compilation and comedy, satire and
coming-of-age film - and somehow this weird blend does actually work.
Being stylistically placed somewhere between 1950's Roger Corman, Ed Wood
and Ray Dennis Steckler on one hand and early Andy Warhol, Jean Luc Godard
and Jan Svankmajer on the other, I was a Teenage Beatnik and/or Monster
in its intentionally meandering narrative style and intentional visual
incoherence actually follows the logic of a weird dream rather than any
sort of genre convention and eventually develops into a very unique
cinematic experience that seems to build a parallel world entirely of its
own - but without ever losing the audience's attention in the process. Quite
fascinating, actually.
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find I Was a Teenage Beatnik and/or Monster at adultvideouniverse.com
