Sid and Nancy (1986)

Directed by Alex Cox. Starring Gary Oldman, Chloe Webb, Andrew Schofield, David Hayman, Perry Benson, Tony London, Debby Bishop, Xander Berkeley. [R]

As junkie UK punk rocker Sid Vicious and his American girlfriend Nancy Spungen, Oldman and Webb inhabit the roles so thoroughly that it feels less like acting than possession. The film, which follows them from just before their first meeting, through his introduction to heroin and the dissolution of his band to her futile efforts to manage his strung-out solo career and her (intentional or accidental?) murder by his hands, attempts an observational snapshot approach that doesn’t always connect the dots or provide basic information for the uninitiated—for instance, will anyone unfamiliar with the Sex Pistols and the London/New York punk scene even understand who Malcolm McLaren (Hayman) was? It’s a downer at length, and there’s too little expression of what made the oft-loathsome and barely-competent bassist/singer a fascinating scene fixation (or worth documenting in the first place), but even though the writing is confused and relentlessly “of a piece,” Cox’s energetic direction, Roger Deakins’ confidential and color-drained camera approach, and the lead performances make it drearily compelling all the same. A young and then-unknown Courtney Love appears in a few brief scenes as one of Nancy’s friends.

68/100