Hard Core Logo 2: Bruce McDonald’s audacious sequel doesn’t revive the band or the actors from his cult hit, aside from the wonderfully sardonic Julian Richlings as record producer Bucky Haight. Instead, Care Failure, chick singer in a punk band called Die Mannequin, channels the spirit of rocker Joe Dick (Hugh Dillon), who put a gun to his head in the original movie. As the mockumentary filmmaker, McDonald braves camera, along with his wife and child, and serves as the lead actor in what amounts to a gonzo meditation on the search for emotional maturity. Riding a reckless, tangential narrative—a meta-movie intent on its own immolation—McDonald busts through comic post-modern posturing to find a core of disarming candour.
Hard Core Logo 2: Bruce McDonald’s audacious sequel doesn’t revive the band or the actors from his cult hit, aside from the wonderfully sardonic Julian Richlings as record producer Bucky Haight. Instead, Care Failure, chick singer in a punk band called Die Mannequin, channels the spirit of rocker Joe Dick (Hugh Dillon), who put a gun to his head in the original movie. As the mockumentary filmmaker, McDonald braves camera, along with his wife and child, and serves as the lead actor in what amounts to a gonzo meditation on the search for emotional maturity. Riding a reckless, tangential narrative—a meta-movie intent on its own immolation—McDonald busts through comic post-modern posturing to find a core of disarming candour.