Reviews
Overview
This is Spinal Tap, for real. High on hairspray and cocaine, punk band Towers of London embody every possible rock 'n' roll cliché. At the height of their career in the mid-2000s, playing with the Pogues, opening for Guns N' Roses and supporting the New York Dolls, they are known as "the Sex Pistols on acid," as they drink, fight and royally fuck up their multimillion-dollar deal in record time. Following the band since seeing them fighting backstage at a music festival 17 years prior, where they stopped mid-punch to fix their hair, the filmmakers don't just document the band's rise, fall and implosion but the friendship, toxic masculinity and forgiveness underpinning it. Beneath the Towers' "so over-the-top it's beyond parody" rock star antics and attitude lies a story of spectacular self-abuse. F**K IT UP! is a rock doc at its most shocking when it dismantles the white, male rock 'n' roll cliché as an antiquated symbol of success.
