A Fat Wreck: The Punk-U-mentary

Fat Wreck Chords (pronounced “Fat Records”), founded in 1990 by Fat Mike of the popular punk band NOFX and his then-wife Erin Burkett is the music label at the focus of the fan-made documentary, A Fat Wreck: The Punk-U-mentary. The film details how it began in its humblest of beginnings, its rise to success, and interviews a vast network of artists associated with the label.

Your overall enjoyment of A Fat Wreck is probably going to depend a lot on how much you enjoy the output of the label and how closely you follow the discography of Fat Wreck Chords. Are you a fan of NOFX? Do you want to see interview after interview of artists who were signed to the label, such as Ladwagon, Propagandhi, No Use for a Name, Strung Out, Against Me!, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, etc., etc.? If you do, and you had a number of patches adorning those bands’ names sewn onto your backpack in high school, you’re going to like this documentary.

It's a slight, non-combative documentary that doesn’t have a tremendous amount of focus. And I don’t necessarily mean this as a dig. It’s a documentary BY fans, FOR fans. It has little interest in film viewers that aren’t fans. It doesn’t feel the need to have to spell everything out. It begins by assuming you’re there to see the meat and potatoes of its production and doesn’t waste time with fillers or other silly little appetizers. It’s all main course. There’s no nonsense to its structure.

However, if you’re not a fan of Fat Wreck Chords, or this specific era of pop-punk, this label, these bands, there’s not going to a be a lot for you here. There are some amusing anecdotes, like Fat Mike signing a band because they buttered him up by offering to carpet his condo for free. They did a great job and he signed them and they’ve had a wonderful relationship ever since.

The documentary does detail some friction between Fat Mike and the band, like a political disagreement between Propagandhi and Fat Mike that unfortunately went public and there were some hurt feelings. But mostly, the documentary decides to stay drama-free and focus on the fun, the music, the partying and the good times. When Fat Mike or Erin Burkett talk about loss of revenue, these discussions are brief. The documentary isn’t here to be a bummer. It’s here to appeal to fans.

Shaun Michael Colón shows talent as a documentary director, as Fat Mike comes off as very pleasant and warm in his interviews, but Colón also gets that same kind of warmth, exuberance and excitement from just about everyone else he interviews for the documentary, too. He has a way with making his subjects feel comfortable, and that’s a real, natural talent that’s hard to come by.

There's just not much of a story beyond: There was a record label, they did well, they had a lot of fun, made a lot of music, and a lot of people liked them. I mean, that’s great, and not everything had to be The Thin Blue Line, some genre-defying work that redefines everything we know about cinema. But some focus on a specific thread would have been nice. The narrative feels a little overstretched, like it has to cover all of its bases, and interview as many artists as possible, so that anything that could have been a compelling story to pursue gets lost in the mix.

My favorite creative decision that the documentary made, which is an admittedly clever one, is the use of puppets. When talking heads are detailing a specific story that no video or film would exist of, instead of relying on cheesy re-enactments, the filmmakers act these stories out with puppets. It adds a sort of lightheartedness to the film that works to its benefit.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
A Fat Wreck arrives rocks its way onto a region-free Blu-ray in a single-disc release in a standard case with a cover containing reversible artwork. One side are the puppet actors that portray Fat Mike and Erin in the re-enactments, and the other side is a classic discman CD player you’d use to blast one of their releases. 

A Fat Wreck was clearly made with a low budget, and its punk rock DIY aesthetic works well in its favor. Tricks of the trade are used to disguise some of its amateur production values—flashbacks have a phony video filter and film grain applied. Certain talking head segments are shot with rampant shaky-cam, with the subject in front of a setting sun, to give it that high-energy look that’s crumbling in front of us. Thankfully, the movie is not wall-to-wall with those filmmaking techniques and knows when to reign it in. Most talking head segments are shot on a tripod, with the subject well-lit and second unit establishing footage is professionally handled.

All in all, A Fat Wreck looks good. It doesn’t look like it’s trying to be anything other than what it is, so it’s free of pretention.

The 5.1 audio mix on A Fat Wreck is a total mess (both the DTS HD-MA and Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes have the same issues) and I recommend just using the Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mix, instead. First of all, the music is mixed WAAAYYYYY too low in the surround sound mix. Voices are favored, by far too favored. Music is mixed several octaves lower than the talking head dialogue audio, so the music playing, even in the rear speakers, sounds muffled. Meanwhile, the subwoofer is going nuts with bass, as though the music is being broadcast at the proper level when it’s definitely not.

Also, with both the DTS HD-MA and Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes, there’s straight up a chunk of audio missing at around the 26-minute mark when Fat Mike is talking about being introduced to Propagandhi’s music. The audio cuts out for a good twenty seconds then resumes like nothing. The music level issues and the missing audio are nonexistent with the 2.0 stereo mix. Just use that one from the get-go, where the music is mixed loudly, as it should be, without ever, ever drowning out the interview subjects. And the dialogue piece is fully present at the 26-minute mark in the stereo mix.

In the special features department, A Fat Wreck does not skimp. For fans on the film, or Fat Wreck Chords as a whole, there are plenty of features here to keep you busy for a good, long while and learn more about the label, its history, and bands they work with.

• A Little Bit Fatter: Bonus Fat (HD 28:45)
• Fatties: The Fat Wreck Chords Subculture (HD 12:46)
• A Fat Wreck: In the Making (HD 26:38)
• 20 Hours to Get Rad (HD 12:52)
• Full 1st Fat Mike Interview (HD 15:02)
• Full Second Mike Interview (HD 1:24:41)
• Full Erin Burkett Interview (HD 38:40)
• All the Puppets: Extended and Cut Puppet Scenes (HD 4:24) 

A Fat Wreck: The Punk-U-mentary is a labor of love whose appeal is hard to deny, even if you’re not a die-hard fan of the music at its focus. The excitement the filmmakers have for Fat Wreck Chords’ discography is clear and their enthusiasm is infectious. The documentary itself, though, lacks cohesive focus and is clearly made for fans (by fans), with little consideration for non-fans looking to get a little history on the label. And, as a plus for fans, there are hours and hours of special features to make your way through. The visual presentation looks good and adheres to its punk rock roots, while its audio 5.1 audio mix is a little shaky, so just make sure to use the 2.0 stereo option to avoid those issues. A Fat Wreck is a fan doc and appropriately enough this Blu-ray comes recommended For Fans Only.