Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution

Exploring a fascinating and illuminating chapter in both American popular culture and gay history, filmmaker Yony Leyser’s lively documentary makes a case that queercore was as important to punk and grunge rock in the 1990s as, say, the Nirvana hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” A definition: queercore (or homocore) is an LGBTQ movement designed to reject assumptions—even those within the gay community—that being gay means you have to like everything gay, and should also aspire to be both out and fully accepted in bourgeois society. Queercore philosophy argues that you should be as out as you want to be, here reflected in clothes, appearance, a taste for underground queer culture, and complete rebellion. Combining interviews and archival materials (film clips from the work of provocateur Bruce LaBruce, posters, zines, etc.--including sexually explicit material), Queercore draws a convincing portrait of the gay alliance with punk and grunge in the ‘90s, making the case that all sides wanted the same thing: to forge one’s own identity. Recommended (with the caveat about the graphic imagery). (T. Keogh)