Calgary-Based Director Showcases All Sides of NOFX: 40 Years of Fuckin’ Up Film Review
NOFX. Still courtesy of Calgary Underground Film Festival.
"I hate to be in a documentary saying the band changed everything, as it's a documentary cliche, but they kind of did."
That quote comes from Joe Escalante from seminal L.A. punk greats The Vandals, who were the first band to bring NOFX on the road when they were starting out. At that point, it was unfathomable that NOFX would last forty years, which even Escalante thought, when in an earlier recollection in 40 Years of Fuckin’ Up he remarks how they were “terrible.” Fat Mike couldn’t (and still can’t) sing, they never rehearsed, and were living in a stinky van (the drummer Erik Sandin is nicknamed “Smelly” but it could really apply to all four members, especially the proudly-rarely-showers Fat Mike). Yet, NOFX, to borrow the title of the final song Fat Mike ever wrote for the band to perform live, “did it their way,” as a proudly DIY-run band until the very end, even during the ’90s pop punk explosion when bands that used to open for them like Green Day, The Offspring and Rancid signed major label deals. Regardless of what you feel about the music, it’s hard not to admire what Fat Mike and company built with NOFX, into a band that remains a teenage punk gateway, whether you were growing up in the ’80s, ’90s, 00s or today.
40 Years of Fuckin’ Up poster.
40 Years of Fuckin’ Up was directed by Calgary-based director James Buddy Day, who also runs Calgary production company Pyramid Productions, and the film is set around Fat Mike deciding to end NOFX after one big final tour. Notice I said “Fat Mike” and not “the band agreed that it should end,” which leads to some of the conflict present in the film. Fat Mike has had his share of problems, including addiction to alcohol and drugs (primarily cocaine), which despite attempts to curb it (including a gory, nearly life-ending moment where Fat Mike vomited blood and bloody feces, while he was staying in Avenged Sevenfold’s M Shadows’ summer home [a heads-up that this moment with the bloody stool is featured on camera, which is among many reasons why this film is unrated]) he remains addicted to this very day. I personally find this side of Fat Mike to be very gross and depressing. The man is pushing sixty and he revels in doing rails of coke before shows, afraid of doing a show not being under the influence of something, that makes him look like an overgrown child. To the many young people in bands that I know that love to brag about always being drunk/under the influence of something before they perform a show, 40 Years of Fuckin’ Up is to me a cautionary tale, of you potentially ending up looking as much of an out of control loser as Fat Mike does throughout the film.
The thing I will give props to 40 Years of Fuckin’ Up is the film is not afraid to show Fat Mike in a really awful light, despite Fat Mike being credited as a producer on it! There are still a bit too many gleeful “doing coke” montages and moments in the film for my liking, but as a documentary film that is showcasing who Fat Mike really is, I appreciate it being as honest as possible. On the positive side, Fat Mike opens up about being in the BDSM lifestyle and his growth in realizing he is queer by alternately wearing both men and women’s clothes, which brings Fat Mike on the verge of tears as he shares this side of himself in a moving way.
Fat Mike being a producer on the film does lead to his side of the story told above all, which includes the dissension between long-time NOFX member Eric Melvin, who would ultimately leave the group, which is hinted at throughout the film. I don’t want to get into the legal problems present in the film, especially as Eric Melvin before the film’s world premiere at SXSW disputed what was claimed in the film, only to reflect when you hear Fat Mike talk about Melvin feeling like “his brother” you get really sad of what has come to their relationship.
40 Years of Fuckin’ Up does a nice job of telling NOFX’s story, using the framework of following the final tour, with footage from shows in Europe, Australia, to Edmonton & Moncton, plus the final string of hometown shows in San Pedro, Los Angeles. By the end of the film, even if you think Fat Mike might be a bit of a self-involved wad, you will understand Joe Escalante’s point of thinking NOFX “changed everything” for punk music. Will you also agree with Milo Aukerman from The Descendents’ point about NOFX being “the modern day punk Beatles”? Well, that might be a bridge too far, but god bless those who think that.