SPILL FILM REVIEW: GLEN MATLOCK – I WAS A TEENAGE SEX PISTOL

GLEN MATLOCK – I WAS A TEENAGE SEX PISTOL

VMI WORLDWIDE

FEBRUARY 10, 2025 (US)

I Was A Teenage Sex Pistol advertises itself as Glen Matlock’s tale of the rise of the Sex Pistols, and it delivers on that front from the off. Every step of the band’s meteoric rise is documented here, from every swearing controversy to every boat party, even every recording session. It pulls very few details, leaves no stones unturned, and certainly tells the story well.

There’s just one problem – haven’t we heard this all before? Sure, it’s told from Matlock’s perspective, and he’s actually an excellent, likeable, if possibly self-glorifying narrator (I think most people with even a passing interest in the Pistols could tell you Matlock provided most of the musical talent – look what happened after his departure), but there’s an increasing feeling that, despite it being adapted from his own book, he’s telling a longer story that he only has a cameo in. Moreover, even with a slight knowledge of the Pistols, you’d know Rotten’s ego took over the band, that McLaren is a duplicitous, mendacious, manipulative liar, that Jones is monosyllabic, and that Cook is a nice guy. Do we learn anything new from hearing the stories again?

Possibly, if only that Matlock seems to be the fairest and most decent of the Pistols – and that he was still pretty friendly with the vast majority of the band, and even his out-of-control replacement, Sid Vicious, after his departure.

Perhaps I’m guilty of expecting too much focus on Matlock outside of the Sex Pistols, but if I’m being completely honest, the film held a lot more of my interest when it went away from the subject implied in the title and focused more on Matlock’s second and third acts. Whether it’s his time with the Rich Kids or The Spectres, or his more recent adventures as something of a jobbing touring musician, with showing up alongside Blondie a particularly fun collaboration the film highlights.

It’s good to see more of Matlock the talented musician and happy human being, as opposed to the third or fourth (possibly even fifth?) best-known member of a seminal band, but whether through artistic choice or otherwise, it took the film a remarkably long time to get there. That makes these sections a very small fraction of a very large picture, and it causes the film to lack depth beyond the well-trodden story.

Don’t get me wrong, Matlock and the assorted talking heads (which is an impressive cast of punk characters, from Debbie Harry, Billy Idol and Fat Mike to a hilariously incongruous Gary Kemp) make it an inoffensive watch, and the ending message, of the power of the Sex Pistols, music, and their rebellious nature, is a nice way to end, but I still feel somewhat underwhelmed by the movie as a whole. It’s not bad, but how many more ways can this story be told?

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