BILLY IDOL SHOULD BE DEAD

(The Tribeca Festival ran June 4-15 in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood and Hammer to Nail has boots on the ground! Check out Chris Reeds’s Billy Idol Should Be Dead movie review fresh from the fest. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.)

Born in Middlesex, England, in 1955, William Michael Albert Broad would go on to international fame in the 1980s as pop star Billy Idol. With deep roots in the previous decade’s punk scene, Idol rode to the top of the charts courtesy of his unique baritone voice and catchy tunes married to an outsider aesthetic. In Billy Idol Should Be Dead, a new documentary from director Jonas Åkerlund (who has another film at Tribeca this year, as well, Metallica Saved My Life), we follow our subject’s career from past to present, learning all about his very high highs and very low lows. Expect a lot of sex, drugs, and rock & roll.

As an ‘80s kid, I grew up with Idol almost constantly on the airwaves, from “Dancing with Myself” to “White Wedding” to “Rebel Yell” to “Mony Mony,” “Flesh for Fantasy,” Eyes Without a Face,” “To Be a Lover” and many more. He achieved his celebrity in part thanks to the rise of MTV, which, as we are reminded here, played his early videos over and over (they had initially limited content., so what they had got lots of repeat airtime). With spiky, blonde-dyed hair, tattoos, and black, sleeveless leather vests, plus his signature lip curl (like Elvis Presley’s, only dialed up a lot), Idol was the perfect bad boy for the times, just rough enough to entice the youth but not so scary as to turn off the older folks.

The film is filled with a great variety of footage, including interviews (all presented in black and white), archival material galore, excerpts from concerts and the aforementioned videos, and animations. Old bandmates, other musicians (of that era, as well as before and beyond), ex-girlfriend (and mother of one of his sons) Perri Lister, Idol’s three children, and others—including Idol himself—all sit down to spill the beans and share the dirt. And the love. Not only has Idol lived something of a “Charmed Life” (title of his 1990 album), but he is also possessed of a lot of personal charisma. Not everyone forgives him everything (nor should they), but he’s in a great place now, just ahead of his 70^th birthday, and Billy Idol Should Be Dead is something of a celebration.

We learn a lot, starting with the formative years (and how he chose his pseudonym). British class issues shaped his initial participation in the music scene, putting him at unintentional odds with other members of the group he fronted (Generation X) before he went solo. His later desire to combine disco with punk is what gave us some of his memorable guitar riffs.

It’s a complex portrait, even as it leans into the positive, never shying away from an extensive exploration of Idol’s drug abuse (heroin was the primary narcotic) and subsequent unpredictable behavior. Is he sober now? The movie conveniently skirts that issue. But he is less wild. Or so it seems. He really should be dead. Good thing he’s not.

– Christopher Llewellyn Reed (@ChrisReedFilm)

2025 Tribeca Fest; Jonas Åkerlund; Billy Idol Should Be Dead movie review

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