''Gimme Danger'' is a 2016 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by Jim Jarmusch about the band

the Stooges The Stooges, originally billed as the Psychedelic Stooges, also known as Iggy and the Stooges, was an American rock band formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1967 by singer Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton, drummer Scott Asheton, and bassist Da ...

. It was shown in the Midnight Screenings section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. The film was released by

Amazon Studios Amazon Studios is an American television and film producer and distributor that is a subsidiary of Amazon. It specializes in developing television series and distributing and producing films. It was started in late 2010. Content is distributed th ...

and

Magnolia Pictures Magnolia Pictures is an American film distributor. It is a subsidiary of Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's 2929 Entertainment. Magnolia was formed in 2001 by Bill Banowsky and Eamonn Bowles, and specializes in both foreign and independent films. Ma ...

on October 28, 2016.

Overview

The film follows the rise, fall and reunion of

, formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the 1967 by singer Iggy Pop, bassist Dave Alexander, and brothers

Ron Asheton Ronald Franklin Asheton (July 17, 1948 – c. January 6, 2009) was an American musician , who was best known as the guitarist, bassist, and co-songwriter for the rock band the Stooges. He formed the Stooges along with Iggy Pop and his brother, ...

and

Scott Asheton Scott Randolph Asheton (August 16, 1949 – March 15, 2014) was an American musician, best known as the drummer for the rock band the Stooges. Asheton was born in Washington, D.C. and moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan with his family at the age of ...

on guitar and drums respectively. Guitarist James Williamson eventually joined the band, with Ron Asheton switching to bass after Alexander was fired. The band found little success during the first phase of their career, recording three albums that did not sell as well as their record companies expected, and performing for audiences that were largely indifferent or hostile. They broke up in 1974, and the band members went their separate ways with vocalist Pop establishing a moderately successful solo career. In time, the Stooges proved highly influential on the development of punk rock in the 1970s. The Stooges' original lineup reformed in 2003, with bassist Mike Watt replacing the late Alexander. Ron Asheton died in 2009, and Williamson rejoined the band for their fifth and final album.

Development and production

Jarmusch began working on the documentary almost a decade prior to the film's release. The project began after Osterberg expressed that if a film were to be made about The Stooges, he would prefer Jarmusch to make it. ''Gimme Danger'' mixes archival photos and footage and cutout style animation alongside reunion-era interviews with the surviving band members and footage of their 2010 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The documentary is titled after a song on the 1973 ''

Raw Power ''Raw Power'' is the third studio album by American rock band the Stooges (credited as Iggy and the Stooges), released on February 7, 1973 by Columbia Records. The album departed from the "groove-ridden, feel-based songs" of the band's first two ...

'' album.

Release

In April 2016,

acquired distribution rights to the film. with

co-distributing the film. The film had its world premiere at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

on May 19, 2016. It also screened at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

on September 8, 2016. and the

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, i ...

on October 5, 2016. The film was released on October 28, 2016.

Critical reception

''Gimme Danger'' received positive reviews from film critics. It holds a "certified fresh" approval rating of 95% on review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 100 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film holds a rating of 72 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gimme Danger 2016 films 2016 documentary films American documentary films Films directed by Jim Jarmusch Documentary films about punk music and musicians The Stooges Amazon Studios films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films