There’s a pinch of the voyeuristic,
slack-jawed amazement that made John Heyn and Jeff Krulik’s landmark 1986 short
Heavy Metal Parking Lot such a wild sub-cultural
curio in Jim Heneghan’s Kiss Loves You,
a fascinating look behind the curtain of probably the best-marketed band of the
past quarter century. There’s also a slight reminiscence to 1997’s Trekkies, a documentary which explored a
similarly fervent fan group. Put it all together, and you have a briskly paced
nonfiction flick treat that plays well to audiences both wide and narrow.

Kiss
Loves You starts out as a bit of a piece of agitprop. Heneghan (the Hellacopters
documentary Goodnight, Cleveland), though, smartly makes sure the film isn’t just some rah-rah
document. A decade in the making, Kiss
Loves You captures the reality of fanatical fandom, but also the cold actualities
of the fact that sometimes getting what one wishes for has unintended
consequences. The film begins in 1994, when Kiss was at a career low point, and
fans around the world were starting their own tribute bands, uniting at
unofficial Kiss conventions and growing increasingly more nostalgic for the
1970s era class Kiss line-up. Cannily in tune with and poised to exploit this
shift in zeitgeist, frontman Gene Simmons and the band responded in 1996,
rising up like a grease-painted phoenix and ushering in a new era of success…
particularly on the marketing front. On the surface, this was a Kiss fan’s
dream come true, but for some folks the return of their idols brought
unexpected losses and harsh new problems.

Kiss
Loves You delves into unofficial Kiss conventions and tribute band gigs for
a wealth of information, conducting interviews with average folks to get to the
core of a typical Kiss fan’s devotion, which obviously extends far beyond any mere
affinity for the music. Other interviewees range from Bill Baker and the entire
small town Ventrice family to musicians like Dee Snider, Todd Youth and Dictators
frontman Dick Manitoba. The music rocks, but Simmons and cohorts Paul Stanley and
Ace Frehley come across as crassly tunnel-visioned businessmen on a certain
level. The real point: Kiss loves the fact that you love them.

Housed in a nice slimline case with a plastic
tray, Kiss Loves You
is presented on
a region-free disc in a letterboxed 4×3 aspect ratio, its picture
elements
drawn from a hodge-podge of sources, including 16mm, analog video and
Super-8
footage. The feature itself runs just over 70 minutes, but Heneghan
complements
the film with a hearty array of bonus material, including
never-before-seen
(though soundless) footage of Kiss in Stockholm in 1976; material from
the Beyond
Vaudeville Kiss Spectacular, a New York City public access cable
program;
extended footage from the band’s comeback press conference aboard the
USS
Intrepid (?!); and more than an hour and a half of candid outtakes and
excised movie
material. To purchase the film via Amazon, click here.
B (Movie) B+ (Disc)