Popular reviews

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  Review by Bob McCully ★★★★ 11

  While I was totally electrified and enthralled with the history of Lydia Lunch, starting with her mysterious roots as a bumpkin in NYC in the late 70's ready to rip the world in half to her now stacked legacy of vitriolic spoken word and avant-garde punk nihilism, it was the last revelatory chapter that focused on her philosophy of trauma that completely sealed the deal.

  Trauma impregnates itself in you, as it did with her through the sexual abuse she received as a young child, and as she so poignantly puts it towards the end of the film - "if you can't find that little act of tenderness, the one you so badly needed as a child, then you instead…

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  Review by theironcupcake ★★★½ 2

  Feminist. Activist. Musician. Actress. Nemesis of Joe Rogan.

  Lydia Lunch.

  I can't imagine how exhausting it is to live a life fueled by anger every single day, a survivor who has pushed her pain and rage over childhood sexual abuse outward into transgressive art in music, spoken word/poetry and film. I hate the patriarchy as much as the next person, but I know that I wouldn't be able to maintain the 24/7 passion that Lunch has in fighting it, so I respect the fact that she has done so for 62 years.

  Beth B's documentary isn't a strictly chronological retelling, instead flitting through the past and present of Lunch's life and career to create a collage of her many facets.…

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  Review by Jay D 's Watching ★★★½

  ..."And she hugged him."

  
  Merry Christmas, everybody!

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  Review by 🔮 dana danger 🔮 ★★★★

  as open and uninhibited as i would hope a lydia lunch documentary would be. i love this portrait of an iconic artist by another brilliant artist who clearly loves her subject dearly.

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  Review by kennelco ★★★★

  Beth B.’s Lydia Lunch: The War is Never Over documentary does a pretty good job on delving into the artist’s life and career. Certainly, this is Lunch telling her own story, largely. And the portrait that is painted is of a fiercely unique character who transformed the traumas of her life into art and anger.

  I’d wondered a bit more about her after watching Kill Your Idols some many years back. How such a young woman wound up in the heart of the tough New York City punk and No Wave scene. Her escape from Rochester, NY and familial abuse fueled her empowered approach to everything.

  Beth B. does sort of call Lunch out for sexually harassing her male bandmates…

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  Review by shaun ★★★★★

  Masterpiece of a documentary—which feels wild to say given it being 40+ years into both Beth B & Lydia's careers. That being said, The War Is Never Over is a complete retrospective on Lydia Lunch, cycling all the way back to her traumatic childhood—all the way up to present day performing as Retrovirus. Despite diving deep into topics such as sexual abuse (and no, I don't mean Lydia beating up guys for the last 40 years), the documentary doesn't crack under pressure and it kept me enthralled throughout. A whirlwind of chaotic/comedic/therapeutic/confronting stories are delivered by Lydia and an array of familiar faces such as: J.G. Thirlwell, Richard Kern, Jim Sclavunos, Bob Bert & Thurston Moore. It also utilises great archival footage…

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  Review by Molly Ringworm ★★★

  Lydia Lunch is somebody I've always had mixed feelings about. Endlessly fascinating and charismatic but also insufferably obnoxious and cringey both as an artist and in conversation. As a documentary, it's crudely made (as most docs of this sort are) and full of obligatory sycophantic talking heads, but it's also a work that paints a very cohesive picture of its subject.

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  Review by Paul Elliott ★★★½

  Hatred, lust, the yearning for vengeance and the rejection of moral norms are just a few of the darker aspects of human nature that have been the themes for the vocalist, author, poet, actress and self-empowerment lecturer Lydia Lunch. Directed by New York underground filmmaker Beth B, it's a documentary that shows that even now, at sixty-three years old, Lunch has no intentions of tempering her blistering assaults on exploitative and abusive power structures. Right from the offset, Lunch is open about her traumatic childhood in Rochester, New York. It goes on to chart her founding of the influential no-wave band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks as well as her time spent between England and Berlin, where her involvement with…

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  Review by Durtro ★★½

  i once was fascinated by Lydia Lunch but have grown tired of her brand of "feminism", which amounts to, i was abused by a sexual predator so i am going to become a sexual predator. it's all just an excuse to be a shitty person. fans will say she speaks truth to power, but it's all a bit too obvious. that's not to say i don't still love Teenage Jesus and The Jerks, Beirut Slump, 8 Eyed Spy, and the albums Queen of Siam, and Shotgun Wedding. as i mentioned in another review i once crossed paths with Lydia in New Orleans. i was wearing a Ruby t-shirt. i don't know if she took offense at my shirt, my gothic…

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  Review by katie ★★★½

  “I’m Lydia Lunch, and my language is not silence. My song is the scream. Terror dwells in the shadow of my wings. My hope is my first gasp and my last battle.”

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  Review by atelier tovar ★★★½

  richard kern looking like a suburban dad now was shocking to me lol 🫣

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  Review by Patrick Pryor ★★½ 3

  Between this movie and Kim Gordon's Girl in a Band, I've heard more than enough Courtney Love disses for one day.