Pistol

Pistol is a fun watch, rife with visual flourishes and emboldened by a strong cast on top of its otherwise by-the-book music biopic boilerplate.

Theirs is a portrait of a battering-ram phenomenon that was successfully designed to destroy, and whether one likes the Sex Pistols or not, Pistol captures their insurgency with exuberant personality, formal ingenuity, and raw power.

There’s loads of great music on the soundtrack that’s representative of the era (not just by The Sex Pistols) that’s matched by Boyle’s shooting style that embraces the period in an off-kilter, slightly chaotic manner.

Danny Boyle’s sensibilities come out in full force for this serrated slice of music history. The performances vary in strength — but the collective scrappy energy of the ensemble under the director’s guidance is undeniable.

This is Punk Rock 101, designed to widen the audience tent to include viewers whose knowledge of the Sex Pistols is relatively limited. For all the frantic pacing and visual flourishes, for all the rebellious chaos depicted here, “Pistol” is a downright respectable telling of the tale.

It was so engaging, at times, that my own critical brain was left behind in the excitement. If the visceral thrill wears off a little too quickly, and leaves you pondering the question of “what’s missing here?”, that doesn’t quite take away the initial achievement, the performances, and the sense that on some level, this show does justice to the bizarre, thrilling ascent of a band whose influence outstripped its talent by country miles.

Even with the occasionally eye-rolling moments of high minded hyperbole about what the Pistols means to its fans and the fate of England’s working class, it continues to compel with its rich period details, cheeky humor, and the music, which has lost none of its raw power after 45 years. No matter what it skims over or outright avoids, Pistol won’t leave any viewer feeling as though they’ve been cheated.

“Pistol” conjures an aesthetic — chaotic, jittery, improvised — that nicely matches its subject. It also includes a number of female characters generally far saner than their male counterparts.

Amid the chaos of the dance floor, the Sex Pistols yearn to obliterate themselves, each other and their listeners. Even if what’s around these moments doesn’t consistently work, “Pistol” nails the thrill of learning to disappear into sound.