Patty Schemel in Hit So Hard

  • Patty Schemel in Hit So Hard

All right. I’m going to date myself and come clean with my ultimate guilty pleasure at the same time: I’m obsessed with the 90s. Lately I’ve been thinking about how the heavily used 90s phrase “sell out” has nearly vanished from our daily lexicon, and I’ve been dying for an excuse to talk about it. Luckily Hit So Hard: The Life & Near Death Story of Patty Schemel recently began streaming on Netflix, presenting the quintessential opportunity. Aside from Courtney Love talking with her mouth full while being interviewed and some amateur camera effects that manage to become wildly abundant as the doc goes on, it’s a super-raw yet insightful take on the 90s grunge-rock scene. You don’t have to be the biggest Hole fan ever to watch this—it’s mostly about Schemel’s personal struggle with drugs, her relationship with music, and the dysfunctional-family dynamics that often exist in band relationships, peppered with some cool footage of Kurt Cobain, including his last Christmas.