Rock Opera

This bracingly sordid slice of microbudget punk-rock cinema from Super-8 maestro Bob Ray makes it clear that the Austin-based, self-taught filmmaker hasn't compromised much of the flagrantly deviant sensibility he flaunted in earlier opuses such as Night of the Kung Fu Zombie Bastards From Hell! and Cocaine Ninja. Rock Opera bubbles up from the same primordial college-town underground ooze as the starving bands/bad drugs/chronic penury lifestyle it simultaneously lampoons and celebrates. Its story is a picaresque affair dealing with the efforts of a sad-sack punk guitarist named Toe (Clark, a comic actor of terrific innate gifts) to sell enough weed to bankroll a low-budget tour for his band. Ray's writing is crude but often hilarious, and his sociological observations are astute. He's a bold, imaginative shotmaker too, although the film contains too many redundant scenes, resulting in a movie that feels much longer than its 87 minutes. Bob Ray may or may not be the Next Big Thing out of Austin, but he's already turning out exuberantly rough-edged films that are a blast to watch. And for now that's fine by me.