Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: BILLY IDOL SHOULD BE DEAD [Tribeca Film Festival 2025 - New York, NY]
The aspect of a life lived can only be seen in retrospect. With "Billy Idol Should Be Dead" [Spotlight+], it captures a man who has been a bit elusive but also one who performs with a very specific theatricality and persona. The fact of who made it obviously plays a lot into it but it still shows the path warts and all. The film is made by LiveNation, itself a promoter and producer so it always reflects back into the nature of commerce. But the director: Jonas Ackerlund, a feature filmmaker ("Spun") and a well known music video director himself, is the perfect person to do this since he understands the trajectory. One of the smartest aspects is to translate certain elements of Idol's life (especially some of those drug fueled) into animation without going overtly over the top. It gives the proceedings a somewhat dreamlike mentality in certain ways.
Idol himself seems very forthcoming, especially with his family and his ex. It paints a picture of a man that in many ways should have and may have joined the 27 club. What is interesting is to see how his father at one point interceded and Idol admits that what was needed to save him briefly from himself. The film doesn't gloss over anything (perhaps except the quiet years later in the life) but that is because the path made him who he is. The story of the early punk scene in London are especially telling because it shows that certain events have to happen at the right pitch, things can be lost and never really regained. The fuel of the Billy Idol persona obviously changed the original kid that was underneath but that is true of everyone. Stories like a late night club with David Bowie and a trip to Bangkok are undeniable lore but one that doesn't deaden the myth but rather does show the man underneath without sentimentalizing it. This man made mistakes. He also achieved something most people never do and did it in a very specific time frame era (the birth of MTV).
A motorcycle accident and a failed movie project (an interesting inclusion but nonetheless relevant to path) show that certain progressions can change in an instant whether one wants it or not. Idol himself doesn't apologize but he does recognize his shortcomings. The film also doesn't water the story down or make it shorter for pacing. it moves fast enough and again Akerlund knows the right pitch to maintain. "Billy Idol Should Be Dead" is an entertaining, practical and yet fulfilling ride into the man who in many ways changed the face of punk. A-
By Tim Wassberg
