Movie review: ‘Pussy Riot’ a gripping primer on Russian punk group

If rock ‘n’ roll (and its upstart offspring, punk) long ago became more of an attitude and way of seeing the world than an actual musical sound or style, then the Russian performance art protest group/band Pussy Riot may be the most rock ‘n’ roll thing to come along in ages.

The documentary “Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer” (receiving a theatrical opening just ahead of airing on HBO) chronicles the group’s three young women — known in the film most easily as Nadia, Masha and Katia — who became an international cause célèbre after a February 2012 guerrilla performance in a church led to criminal charges and imprisonment.

It seemed to many that three bright, thoughtful women were being crushed by the regime of Vladimir Putin (and it likely hasn’t hurt that Nadia in particular has an enigmatic diffidence and pouty prettiness that brings to mind actress Aubrey Plaza). As Los Angeles Times music critic Randall Roberts has pointed out, the actual music of the group has “generally been dismissed” as an afterthought, but it makes them no less compelling.

Pulling from trial footage, performance videos, YouTube clips, Twitter feeds and interviews with family members, the challenge for filmmakers Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin is that the story is still so much in motion, with two members in prison amid ongoing appeals. As an overview and introduction to the group and their struggles, the film feels like a useful primer, a starting point. Even if you may not be putting a Pussy Riot song on your next playlist, there is something so of-the-moment and exciting about the group that “Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer” feels important, if not fully complete.

— Mark Olsen

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“Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer.”

MPAA rating: None.

Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Playing: Laemmle NoHo 7.