The moment of the movie, for me, is the girl at the Stains' first (disastrous) performance who looks up at Corinne Burns with a mixture of awe, wonder, and worship as Corinne unleashes her anger and contempt. This is the power and appeal of punk rock. The girl sees in Corinne her own anger, her own feelings, and her own desire to be heard and to not be contained within what people deem appropriate. The Stains' image or more specifically Corinne's image is, in that moment, genuine, vital, unvarnished, unpracticed (other than three long rehearsals), and completely sincere. Whether Corinne maintains that sincerity in the face of petty feuding and sexist rock promoters trying to take advantage of a young girl is the thrust of the plot, but it makes a great point about the many varied forces arrayed against girls who don't fit the tiny boxes in which we are supposed to live and the lengths people will go to in order to destroy that vitality.
