This documentary retraces the evolution and disintegration of Transgressive Cinema, which is also sometimes referred to as No Wave film movement (obviously a play on the musical genre, New Wave which emerged around the same time). At the core of the No Wave film movement were a group of underground filmmakers from New York, most notably Richard Kern, Joe Coleman and Nick Zedd who created unconventional films that disregarded traditional cinema aesthetics. The imagery and subject matter in these films was often extreme, profoundly disturbing and always in your face.

The greatest strength of this documentary is how it holds your attention even if you know little or nothing at all about the subject at hand. In the interview included with this DVD director Angélique Bosio mentions how she had enough material to work with that this documentary could have easily ballooned to a five four time length. At just under seventy three minutes this documentary still covers plenty of ground as everything moves along briskly. Also the images and film clips that appear in this documentary give viewer a well rounded sample of the film’s / art that was created as part of the No Wave film movement. Many musicians like Sonic Youth, Lydia Lunch and the Butthole Surfers contributed to the No Wave film movement. Ultimately Llik Your Idols is a fascinating documentary about a rarely discussed style of filmmaking and those who helped define it.

The DVD:

Llik Your Idols is presented in its original aspect ratio (the interviews shot for this documentary are in a 1.85:1 Letterboxed Widescreen, while clips from the films shown in this documentary are shown in a 1.33:1 full frame aspect ratio). Of course the interview segment’s fare better than some of the clips from film’s that appear in this documentary. This transfer has been flagged for progressive playback. Overall outside of some mild edge enhancement this is a more than satisfactory transfer.

This release comes with one audio option a Dolby Digital stereo mix in English. The audio fares well, the dialog is clear and easy to follow. The audio does exhibit some minor distortion issues during some of the clips from the film’s that are featured in this documentary. Despite the flaws in the audio during these clips the audio mix included for this DVD release is a more than adequate presentation.

Extras for this release include an in-depth interview with director Angélique Bosio (20 minutes 19 seconds – 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen – in French with English subtitles), who discusses how the project came about, the difficulty in getting interviews with some of the people involved in the Transgressive Cinema movement and why it took five years to complete this documentary. The remaining extras are two short films directed by Nick Zedd, Police State (18 minutes 37 seconds – 1.33:1 Full Frame) and War Is Menstrual Envy (14 minutes 14 seconds – 1.33:1 Full Frame). Police State is a story about a rebellious youth who ends up the victim of police brutality. War Is Menstrual Envy is the more abstract of the two shorts; it features a disfigured man who is being ravished by an assortment of women. Police State is a mildly interesting short, while War Is Menstrual Envy is painfully awful. Overall Llik Your Idols gets a solid DVD release that comes with a trio of extras that are all just as fascinating as the main feature, recommended.