When Toronto screenwriter Noel Baker first began work for director Bruce McDonald on his film adaptation of the Michael Turner novel Hard Core Logo, he anticipated his diary might someday make a fine book. Knowing this, readers do well to take his entries with a grain of salt – or whatever substance lies close at hand. As a diary, Hard Core Roadshow seems to promise a retelling of the facts. But Baker’s fast-living, no-prisoners recreation of key events – from his first meeting with McDonald to his near-triumph at the Genie awards – feels too shaped (shaped, in fact, like a classic screenplay) to reflect the chaos of daily life.

I am not lamenting sacrificed accuracy. Baker himself cautions the reader: “If I prove to be a poor servant of the truth, I can only shrug and ask, ‘whose truth?’” Fair enough. Roadshow – the story of a screenwriter retelling a musician’s first novel about a punk-rock band – is as much about who plays the best cover as it is about who penned the original song. If it makes a good yarn, and is nicely set up in advance, who’s to say it didn’t happen that way? Such self-conscious storytelling leads to big points on irony, but a certain scorn for emotional detail.

This is a rock-’n’-roll hooligan’s book. There are pranks involving pee and trashed hotel rooms. There are jokes about genitals. Baker’s self-avowed task is to mythologize the travails and triumphs of his punk quartet (and the making of the film). This quest for myth leads him to focus, sometimes glibly, often bitterly, on the richly detailed surface of events. The pace is a steady three-chord slam of myopic investors and redneck locals that leaves little room for Baker’s best writing: passages detailing his admiration for the crew and his passion for film. At its best, though, this book documents the collaboration of two emotionally cool rebel filmmakers.