Film

The Punk Singer

Name: The Punk Singer
Genre: Documentary, Music
Released: 2013
Cast: Kathleen Hanna, Adam Horovitz, Joan Jett, Jennifer Baumgardner, Johanna Fateman

Musical

A portrait of Kathleen Hanna and the riot grrrl movement she sparked in 1990s punk. The film moves between intimate interviews, archival footage, and cultural analysis to trace how a teenager with a voice and a vision helped reshape punk into something explicitly political, feminist, and unafraid of its own fury. For anyone curious about how underground movements change the world.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a music documentary built around one person's restless politics, where the fierce, funny interviews with the people who lived that scene matter as much as the concert footage.

Skip it if you want a tidy, neutral history of punk, since this is a devoted portrait of one artist, told largely from a fan's side with an admiring, unhurried pace.

What it asks of you: Eighty minutes of steady attention to interviews and archive clips, at a measured pace, with much of the feeling carried by people talking straight to camera.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

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Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Punk Singer

The wildcard

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The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years poster

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