WHO KILLED NANCY?

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Cheesy exploitation punk rock history takes a random path around the mystery of Nancy Spungen's death with an odd-fitting score of background music by bands such as the Buzzcocks.

The more appropriate Sex Pistols music never dares to play a note over the archive material at hand. Director Alan G. Parker reuses retouched photos so much that you're repeatedly led to ask why there isn't more of a movie in front of you. Nonetheless, interview commentary from musician friends of Sid, like Pistols original bass player Glen Matlock and Handsome Dick Manatoba (of the Dictators), tell colorful anecdotes and memories of Sid's and Nancy's last days inside Manhattan's Chelsea Hotel.

It's clear that the NYPD bungled the case because they were unconcerned by the death of "just another junkie" — in this case Nancy Spungen. Computer graphics show the layout of the hotel room as the filmmaker builds toward his loosely stated thesis that a thief killed Nancy.

For audiences who aren't fans of punk, "Who Killed Nancy?" will seem like a ham-handed documentary that doesn't tell you much that you didn't know, or couldn't imagine, already.

For those who lived through the heady punk days of the late '70s, the film is an indispensable chapter in the musical revolution that was punk rock.

Not Rated. 100 mins.