Sad, Beautiful Losers. In Boots.

beautiful losers

Watching the film “Beautiful Losers” at the 52nd annual London International Film Festival last week felt like a time warp.

The film documents a group of artists, film makers, musicians, skateboarders, and outsiders that documented their lives through art; creativity that helped define, articulate, and give an identity to an entire generation of DIY youth that came up in the 90s (some of the same art that would eventually lend itself to ESPN ads and more recently somehow wound up on t-shirts in Wal-Mart).

Seeing that creativity depicted on film was like watching a live scrapbook of a time — the 90s — that was incredibly specific; ironic, pissed off, bored, antsy, suburban, curious, and sensitive. Money Mark’s (Beastie Boys keyboardist) quirky, light soundtrack guides the viewer through the film.

“Beautiful Losers” director Aaron Rose, while in London for the screening, performed here with his black boots-wearing LA band, The Sads, in a small museum theater space in which the audience sat on floor mats and listened to the electronic performance through headphones. The 30-minute show began with the flicking of a copper wire, escalated with electronic drums (part of which fell apart during the second of three songs performed), keyboards, and soft vocals and emotional, dual-harmonized lyrics.

The band, made up of members of Modest Mouse, the Melvins, and the Moonrats, was subdued, sometimes boring, and very much like the point of Rose’s film: here’s our moment, here’s what we’ve got to offer. We think it’s badass. Take it or leave it.

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