Punk rock supergroup OFF! have released their movie, Free LSD. Guitarist Dimitri Coats’ directorial debut is a rock n roll movie in the vein of Hard Days Night and The Wall, but spiritually feels closer to the Monkees’ film, Head. Given the crazy plot and the indie-ness of it, one would want to immediately classify this as a cult classic or midnight movie for the wrong reasons, but the band has created something truly special and the time and care put into it shows.
In an alternate dimension, a gray-haired and bearded Keith Morris works in a sex shop in Los Angeles by day and has a podcast about aliens at night. Keith meets a new resident to Los Angeles, Cici, when she comes into his shop. Later that night, he’s followed to the gas station by a man with all black eyes who speeds off after throwing a cigarette at him. The next day Keith and Cici hook up in the back of his shop, but Keith isn’t able to perform. Disappointed in himself, Keith decides to go see the Boner Doctor (David Yow of the Jesus Lizard). The Boner Doctor gives Keith a vial of white liquid known as the antidote.
After Keith drinks the antidote he has a vivid recollection of being the lead singer of a punk rock band in a different dimension. However, he is snapped back to his reality when he is kidnapped and shot in the back of the head after the show by the man with black eyes who was following him previously. The Boner Doctor tells Keith he is the lead singer of OFF! needs to collect the rest of the band in this dimension to change their fate in order to save the universe.
This was one of the strangest movies I’ve seen in a while, but it was also a lot of fun. Coats has written a script that is mostly sci-fi, but also dabbles in comedy and horror. Writing is about figuring out how to repurpose cliches, but it’s what you do with them that matters. Coats’ script mostly hits well and moves at a good pace. The movie does spin its wheels a bit towards the end, but the ride is fun. There are a slew of cameos in the movies from punk rockers to comedians, but it doesn’t feel overstuffed with them.
It was great seeing Keith Morris and the rest OFF! hold their own as actors. Watching Keith’s chops in this film makes one wish he would have done more than just lipsync a lounge version of “When The Shit Hits The Fan” in Repo Man. Each band member portrays themselves and their alternate version from the other dimension with Keith and Dimitri’s alternates having the most significant change in appearance.
Dimitri Coats’s script went through many changes in the eight years it took for the movie to be made, including a title change, failed Kickstarters, and multiple rewrites as the band’s lineup changed throughout the years. The film is dedicated to drummer, D.H. Peligro, who stepped in when OFF! drummer Justin Brown had to bow out of the movie at the last minute. His involvement saved the production from being scrapped altogether.
The sun is setting on stories with multiverses and alternate dimensions. They have been hammered into us a lot in the last couple of years, but this is a special entry almost on the level of Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. A lot of people won’t take this movie seriously, but Free LSD is the best kind of art and does nothing to hide its ridiculous concept. It treats the stakes as serious as a heart attack and the laughs accordingly. The care that was put into this film gushes through the screen. I went in thinking I was going to get some silly punk rock movie, but left seeing something much more.