Fat Wreck Chords… The influential music label proud to say they’ve spent the past 25 years “ruining punk rock”. A Fat Wreck tells the story of founders Fat Mike (of the legendary punk band NOFX) and his ex-wife Erin Kelly-Burkett, spanning the birth, growth, struggles, and survival of the Fat Wreck Chords label. Half inspirational story of chosen family and community, half debauchery and occasionally involuntary drug use… A Fat Wreck blazes exciting new ground in the cinematic genre of puppet-driven punk rock music documentary filmmaking. If you only see one film featuring a dominatrix spanking a puppet in your lifetime… Make it A Fat Wreck!

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Video Quality

A Fat Wreck: The Punk-U-Mentary comes to Blu-Ray from ETR Media with a solid HD master which presents this documentary exactly as intended. This feature is made up of a mixture of interviews conducted for this movie from the past decade along with older clips, music videos, concert footage, and pictures to help round out the history of the label and the bands they have helped over the years. The new talking head interview segments look appropriately crisp and clear with consistent skin tones and some detailed facial features such as facial hair.

All archival footage seems to stem from the most stable source possible, some of which is understandably a bit inconsistent due to the lack of huge productions for many of these bands and the technology available when the label was established. The more recent footage is complex with only a small amount of variance to account for the different environments such as an indoor bar or a rooftop patio. The colors featured in the footage have a pleasant amount of depth to them. The encoding does not come up short when it comes to compression artifacts or digital anomalies of the sort. This documentary looks every bit as good as it should in HD.

Audio Quality

This Blu-Ray disc comes with a mostly favorable* DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that presents this material quite well. Dialogue is the prominent aspect of this experience in the center channel as you get the history relayed in a serviceable environment. The interviews feature an assembly of talking heads which is expanded upon with additional archival footage. The non-diegetic music and clips of performances both resonate with ideal fidelity that conjures the intensity you want from the label. The surround sound presentation is not overly showy, but it delivers an immersive experience that helps the music make more of an impact. There are few unwanted digital anomalies or other issues spotted. This track is just shy of being perfect. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided.

*There is a strange 10-second audio dropout around the 26:03 timestamp in both the lossless and lossy 5.1 tracks. There is a lossy 2.0 track that is not impacted by this issue. If we gain any additional information about this issue, we will update this review.

Special Features

A Little Bit Fatter – Bonus Fat: There is nearly 29 minutes of additional unused footage that provides some really interesting moments that could not fit neatly into the finished film.

Fatties – The Fat Wreck Chords Subculture: A 13-minute piece primarily with fans who speak to the culture that surrounds the label including the Wikipedia page, the attitudes of the band, and more.

A Fat Wreck – In The Making: A 27-minute look at the creation of the documentary from the initial ideas to completion.

20 Hours To Get Rad: A 13-minute featurette that tracks the road trip to California to shoot some interviews for the documentary.

Full Interviews

- Full 1st Fat Mike Interview (15:02)

- Full 2nd Fat Mike Interview (1:24:41)

- Full Erin Burkett Interview (38:40)

All The Puppets – Extended and Cut Puppet Sequences: A nearly five-minute collection of puppet moments that did not make the final version of the film.

Final Thoughts

A Fat Wreck: The Punk-U-Mentary is primarily for fans of the label, and there is nothing wrong with that approach. The film gives you enough background on the scene and those behind this creative endeavor to have a solid base before key figures start ripping through the history band by band. There is some inconsistency when it comes to the time spent on the relevant artists, but those who love the genre should have a good time reflecting on these musicians and getting unique tidbits. The film succumbs to hagiography at times, but there is enough dirt shared to not have anyone looking like a saint. Although the history might not be interesting enough to dazzle newcomers to the scene, fans of the label should be delighted. ETR Media has released a Blu-Ray featuring a strong A/V presentation and some terrific special features. Recommended

A Fat Wreck: The Punk-U-Mentary is currently available to purchase on Standard Edition Blu-Ray or with a Limited Edition Slipcover exclusively through Vinegar Syndrome.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: ETR Media & OCN Distribution have supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.