The Ramones were called upon to face the forces of petty oppression (or one lousy principal) in 1982's Rock 'n' Roll High School. With the schlock quality one expects from producer Roger Corman, this cartoonish teen comedy is nonetheless superior to films Corman made in the same mould in the late '50s and '60s. A lot of credit for that goes to the genuinely punk attitude of Joey Ramone who couldn't be bothered to pronounce half his lines clearly. The result is a subtle matter/anti-matter reaction between formulaic and anarchic.
The story centres on two girls, Riff (P.J. Soles) and Kate (Dey Young). Riff is the school DJ, obsessed with the Ramones but also passionate about good '70s underground music in general, ensuring the film has an improbably fantastic soundtrack also featuring Brian Eno and The Velvet Underground. Kate is her mousy, straight arrow friend who, for reasons I can't imagine, wants to bang a sleazy jock played by Vince Van Patten.
Ironically, the film's villain, Principal Evelyn Togar, is played by a woman who actually worked with The Velvet Underground, Mary Woronov. She puts just the right amount of over the top maniacal into the role for the film's cartoonish humour. Most of that humour falls flat on me, in the best of times (it's just not my bag) but I loved the mouse that mutates after Togar forces it to listen to the Ramones.
But the quality of the film picks up substantially whenever the Ramones themselves are on screen. I particularly liked a creepy/sweet sequence where the band appears in a sexual fantasy Riff has about them.
Something about the bitterly frustrated passion in Ramone as he leans in over a steadfastly safe, blank, two dimensional, comedic performance by P.J. Soles is a good glimpse into the nature of punk and what motivated it.
Rock 'n' Roll High School is available on The Criterion Channel.
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