In 1992, Courtney Love decided to take her band Hole in a new direction, veering off slightly from their raw, punkier origins, toward a (slightly) more melodic sound. This suited neither their bassist Jill Emery nor their drummer Caroline Rue, who chose to part ways with Hole. This left two spots to fill. At the suggestion of Kurt Cobain, the sticks were taken up by a 25 year old woman working at Microsoft, named Patty Schemel, the life of whom this documentary explores.
Her control over her addictions wavers […] until she hits further than some people’s idea of rock bottom…
Once Schemel was signed up and touring with the band, she felt she should record the experience for posterity, and the documentary is predominantly comprised of footage she shot on the road, backstage, and behind the scenes at the Love/Cobain compound. Little did she know quite what dark scenes lay ahead. The famous suicide of Kurt Cobain, and the tragic overdose of bassist Kristen Pfaff not long after, fell almost unrecognized by the press, who were still wringing their hands over the death of Nirvana’s Cobain.
Faith No More’s keyboardist and friend of Schemel’s, Roddy Bottum provided the score for the film, and his hand is always subtle, and frankly a welcome balance. Not every anecdote we hear would go well with Courtney Love’s caterwauling. One particularly moving anecdote comes from Schemel’s mother, speaking of the first time Patty told her she was gay, and the unpleasant way the story became necessary to break.
Patty Schemel’s adult life has been tempestuous to say the least. Excess rarely affected her work with Hole, but radically affected her life outside the band, and after leaving it. Her control over her addictions wavered through the years until she hit further than some people’s idea of rock bottom.
… touching, titillating, but never unnecessarily sensational …
Gratifyingly, the modern day Patty Schemel, now clean for 5+ years, is not only comfortable speaking about those times candidly, but also does so with such humour that it prevents HIT SO HARD coming across like REQUIEM FOR A DREAM 2. At one point, describing just how strung out she was, she explains that at one point, if some skeezy guy had offered her some drugs, but at the same time she was offered a date with Angelina Jolie, she’d scoot right up next to the bum with the crackpipe.
The documentary never suffers from the old fate of throwing too many talking heads at us, which can sometimes kill the pace. There are of course many contributors, but footage is always juxtaposed with old concert footage, or intimate film of Kurt Cobain monkeying around with his wife and child.
A touching, titillating, but never unnecessarily sensational portrait of an interesting woman and an interesting time.