Hype! is a 1996 documentary by the great Doug Pray (his first feature).  It’s an in depth look at the northwest rock explosion, otherwise known as grunge.  It uses the people who are/were there to really tell the true story that normally you wouldn’t get from what was essentially a very closed off community.  This happens to be one of my favorite films of all time and that’s why I’m writing about it here.  First check out the trailer:

 

I like this movie for many reasons.  The first thing you need to know is that this isn’t a documentary about Nirvana.  It does include a lot of talk about Nirvana, but within the context of their effect on the scene, how they came out of nowhere, became the biggest thing in the world, and then the tragic end.  They also managed to capture the first performance of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.

 

The first thing you’ll actually notice is a lack of Nirvana, since the first wave of grunge didn’t include them.  This movie takes a comprehensive look at the conditions that brought this music to being.  About how the conditions in this one particular place were all just right.  Then it takes a look at the monster that is the major labels, and to an extent the sellers of grunge, indie label Sub Pop.

 

The other thing is that this movie actually tells a really well put together story, with lots of interesting footage of the bands and people really involved in this explosion all talking about it in thoughtful and funny ways.  It’s just a really well put together documentary.  Pray got deeply involved in the lives of his subjects and embedded himself until they trusted him and really opened up to him since they were just generally gun shy of any media at this point.  He’s there while everything is really happening and captures all the excitement and absurdity.

 

Then there’s the performance footage.  Besides getting wonderful footage of just about everything else, Pray managed to get a ton of really kick ass performances on film.  One of the best is The Gits performing “Second Skin”.  He’s also got Mudhoney doing “Touch Me I’m Sick”, Soundgarden playing an arena to show how big things got, and Pearl Jam doing their famous Monkeywrench Radio broadcast of “Not For You”, in context of the meaning of the song.  There’s a ton more that I just don’t have the space or time to list.  You’ll really love it though.  He captures the incredible energy of these performances, both from the bands and from the audiences.

But even if you aren’t a fan of grunge, this movie is an eye opening look at how major labels and the media and society in general took this small local thing and blew it up and sort of killed it (almost literally since most people concede that grunge died the day Kurt Cobain did).  Oh and Cobain’s death isn’t the only one treated with reverence.  Grunge’s first casualty happened before most of the world knew what it was.  Andy Wood’s overdose is treated with the importance it had on history and the effect it had on the scene.

 

But if you are a fan of grunge you’re in for so much greatness it’s hard to even put it into words.  Almost as good as the actual movie is that Pray teamed up with Sub Pop to put out an incredible soundtrack.  The soundtrack is essentially a walk through the history of grunge all it’s own.  As a grunge fan I love this soundtrack with all my heart.  Check it out:

 

 

The movie is available on and also through Amazon on DVD: