Change Your Image
snot-rock
Reviews
Hey! Is Dee Dee Home? (2002)
Fatally Flawed But a Must-See Nonetheless
For someone who is so enamored of punk rock, Lech Kowalski sure didn't care about p***ing off the punk community when he made "Hey, is Dee Dee Home?" His portrait of Dee Dee Ramone is only worth seeing because Dee Dee is worth seeing. And hearing. Unfortunately, Kowalski was apparently less interested in what Dee Dee had to say and more interested in trying to make him look like some kind of name-dropping junkie moron. Thank god he failed. Dee Dee came off as sweet, charming, intelligent and self-effacing. So much so that it makes one wonder what kind of manipulation Kowalski performed to get him to submit to such interrogation, which was performed in the requisite bare surroundings under bright lights.
Dee Dee, who was clearly sober during the interview, talked at length about his almost life-long struggle with heroin addiction. It seemed especially difficult for him to talk about Johnny Thunders, Gerry Nolan and his girlfriend Connie, all of whom died as a result of their drug problems. But he did talk about it, probably to please Kowalski who is clearly obsessed with Johnny Thunders. Dee Dee also talked about being alive. He sounded hopeful for himself. He sounded content. He said he had been clean for six months.
It was at this point that Kowalski decided to end the film with a written epilogue that Dee Dee died from a heroin overdose. It was disrespectful to turn this film into some kind of anti-drug advertisement. All of us who went to see the film thought it was really inappropriate.
Shame on you Lech Kowalski.
Dee Dee we love you!