Film Review – Ralph Bakshi's Hey Good Lookin'
A Gritty Twist on Familiar Titles Like Grease and West Side Story
Sep 8, 2008
The streets are dark, lethal, and filled with trash and the bodies of strung-out users. A pair of leather boots steps carelessly down an alley, panning up past a sharp leather jacket strewn with chrome zippers to a perfectly styled and gelled haircut. Vinnie, leader of the Brooklyn Stompers, is headed out for a night on the town with his girl under one arm and a bottle of liquor nestled in the other.
Dark Paradise, Urban Decay
Hey Good Lookin' chronicles the story of Vinnie, gang leader of the infamous Brooklyn Stompers, and his closest friends and lovers during the fifties era of rock n' roll, cool lingo, and cooler clothes. True to form, Bakshi draws for us a picture of the seedy underbelly of New York, choosing Brooklyn as the venue to show the marginal members of society struggling to stay alive amidst a cocktail of sex, drugs, violence, racism, and good music. Vinnie is an idol, a shooting star falling from prominence into obscurity, and the film is primarily centered around his fading celebrity - dying just as quickly and violently as the world that these bums, gang members, addicts, prostitutes, and corrupt cops inhabit.
Soundtrack Release
The soundtrack to the film was not officially produced due to the poor financial showing of the film upon it's premiere at the box office. Due to a recent resurgence of demand for the product by an increasingly savvy web population that oversaw an online petition, the soundtrack was finally released in 2006. It is not hard to imagine why, given that the soundtrack is upbeat, original, and eclectic - truly a gem that contains a nod to the fifties era that the film is so directly concerned with. Often times the soundtrack is blatantly used as an upbeat contrast to brutal violence going on in the corresponding scene for comedic effect or simply to poke a little fun at the oversimplified remembrance of the "good ol' days".
In a Nutshell
Once again Bakshi does not disappoint, the animation is well drawn and the rotoscoping very well. Thematically, the obvious contrast between the perceived era of conservative family values, sunny days, simpler times, soda pop shoppes, waxed roadsters, and immaculate beauty and the content of this film is hard to miss. The fifties, as any other era of prosperity, were the best of times for some and the worst of times for others. For Vinnie, Crazy Shapiro, Roz, and the rest of the Stompers, maybe the fifties were slick and lubricated with booze - but they weren't the best of times. Brooklyn as depicted here in Hey Good Lookin' is a hedonistic den of lies, violence, blatant and savage racism and hatred, and lust for all vice. Bakshi has an ability to draw an interesting caricature of life for that hidden life of our population, the underclass and the down-and-out.
At a brief 77 minutes, Hey Good Lookin' is well paced with plenty of action and surprises - the narrative is definitely more straightforward than some of Bakshi's other work which typically trends metaphorical and cerebral. A must watch for fans of adult animation, psychedelia, independent film, and for those seeking pure entertainment alike!
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