No genre attracts the interest of budding sociology writers like punk and, ambitiously, this essay anthology covers films about punk, films by punks, films punks watched and films with punk actors. This scattershot approach gives No Focus a rebellious appeal but, mostly, the impression that this is a book devoted to a film genre that barely exists.
It’s an erratic read, but the section on ‘punksploitation’ is engaging and the in-depth coverage of Pistols flick The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle offers impressive detail, but a dearth of new information. In keeping with its subject matter, No Focus is an anarchic mess of disparate approaches. Informal Q&As sit beside more serious film dissections, and it doesn’t help that there are small factual errors in some of the writing. Early Clash drummer Terry Chimes is wrongly referred to as ‘Nicky’, for example.
Ultimately, this is an uneasy middle ground between academic text, guidebook and half-baked cultural commentary. While a handful of punk fanatics will relish the best chapters, No Focus proves to be an unfortunately appropriate title.
