By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Tom Stern
Year: 2025
Running time: 106
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16304140/
Julie B. says: “BUTT HOLE SURFERS: THE HOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUTTt, a documentary directed by Tom Stern, co- produced by Simon Weinstein, edited by Scott Evans (who directed last year’s ROAD TO RUANE doc) is about a wild Texas post punk band that will keep you engaged, make you laugh and pull at your heart strings just a bit. You’ll be surprised at all the things you’ll learn about the band and other people they’ve influenced or been involved with.
“You may ask what kind of music did they play? Their music definitely evolved over the years so it’s a bit hard to categorize them in just one genre, but I’d describe them as post punk, garage, cowboy, surf mixed at different points in time with other elements including psychedelia, noise/experimental rock, electronics, sound manipulation and tape editing. Always with a sense of humor, irony and often a dark side reflecting things in their lives or imaginations. (I’ll just add here that at some point, they lost some artistic control, which Gibby was clearly not happy about, and from what I’ve read since, apparently some fans weren’t either.)
“Fronted by two artistic / musical geniuses who went to uni together, rounded out by two affable brother and sister like dual-drummers King Coffey (Jeffrey Coffey) and Theresa Nervosa (Teresa Taylor), a naked dancer(Kathleen Lynch), and a rotation of bassists, including a momentary tuba player who claimed he was emotionally scarred from his time in the band. Who would not be intrigued!?!
“We come to find out early in the film that the two founders met in the late 70’s at Trinity University and were geared to lead conventional careers. Gibson ‘Gibby’ Jerome Haynes, the band’s vocalist, was captain of Trinity’s University’s basketball team, as well as the school’s ‘Accountant of the Year’, soon graduated to a position with a respected Texas accounting firm. Paul Leary, their brilliant lead guitarist remained at Trinity working on his MBA degree.
“[As an aside, I recently got to speak to Paul Leary via the internet, telling him how I think we may have crossed paths as I also lived in San Antonio and we both swam at Trinity every day. I also used their library for 2 years while in law school elsewhere in town from 81 – 83. This was around the time their band was forming. In fact when they were at Trinity in the late 70’s I was at UCLA and when I came back to SA was around the time they went to California for a short while. But they did return to SA in 81-84. Their debut show was at the Bonham Exchange (a whole ‘nother story about the history of this architecturally intriguing, fantastic gay dance and music night club that used to be a German Gentlemen’s Athletic Club, whose beginnings date back to 1891. I was unaware of BHS at that time, but in 1983 I went to the Bonham Exchange to see Wall of Voodoo. Ironically I had likened BHS to Stan Ridgeway of Wall of Voodoo among a few other artists based on a few of their songs I’d heard when researching them right before seeing the movie. I mentioned this to Paul who exclaimed ‘Dang I missed Wall of Voodoo, how’d I do that!’]
“But I digress as is my way! It was interesting but frustrating (maybe understandable considering their long relationship), to discover that Gibby didn’t want to talk about his relationship with Paul. At one point in an interview, their 7th bass player Kramer noted that ‘he’d never seen two guys so in love behave so poorly to each other’. We never get the details there. But the director Tom Stern (who’d been friends with the band for 40 years) not only knew the compelling story behind the Butthole Surfers, regarding their groundbreaking music, but also how Haynes and Leary’s partnership evolved during the band’s 35-year run. That was all conveyed in the film, as much as could be expected considering that some things were left unsaid.
“The doc did get into many personal elements of each band member regarding past and current times as well as the dynamics between the band and their relationships with other well known musicians, actors, film maker Richard Linklater and the infamous Timothy Leary.
“During the Q & A we were told by the director that the film we saw is not the final cut and that he has hours of interviews from Johnny Depp to edit/add to the film. Johnny played with the BHS at one point and apparently knew them well. Since the film is 10 minutes shy of two hours I think Tom and Scott will have their work cut out for them in the editing !
“Wonderful animations and puppets added to help tell/recreate the story, in some cases, I am guessing, as ideas / conjecture that Tom Stern and others may have had about the friendship/partnership between Gibby and Paul in earlier years. It’s a wild entertaining collage of a story with so many pieces to be painted in by so many witnesses who did not necessarily remember/interpret/view the entire story of the band in the same way. It was a relief for me and the audience I am sure to see the positive outcomes for the band members but there were some sad stories there as well. 4.25 cats
“Seen at the IFF Boston Somerville Theatre April 26, 2025 8:30 110 Minutes”
Tom responds: “Awesome travelogue of the 1980s…The tie ins to River Phoenix and Kurt Cobain on the eves of their deaths is eerie.