Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Dartherer I really don't get the hype.

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

rob-ankrom At first I thought someone had pulled a "I'm Still Here"/"This Is Spinal Tap" on me, laughing at the amazingly over-the-top pretense of the Brian Jonestown Massacre's front flame-out Anton Newcombe (not to mention the antics of the rest of the band), and the dead-pan enthusiastically reverent BJ that all of their hipster critics gave the BJM throughout the film (yeah, that means you too, Courtney-Courtney)... Then it got sad with poor Anton's family BIOGRAPHY, and then got a little better with the revelation that Anton is STILL (as of '04) kicking ass-- despite his history of treating his band mates like fertilizer; and yet the ever wonderful Portland, Oregon's Indie darlings The Dandy Warhols just keep chugging along, charming the world. Overall review? Meh. Brian Jonestown Massacre are/were a retro piece of merde, wanna-be psyche band (newsflash-- THE GAL-DERN SIXTIES ARE O-VER)... meanwhile, I still kinda dig the Dandys (hey, I'm from Portland-- and have gotta support the home team even tho' they do not decimate PDX venues).

flamencoprof Shot into car from through the windscreen, someone is playing someone else their latest song, someone else didn't react, according to the voice-over. I just wonder how that came to be made. There were too many scenes in this movie that I wondered about how come a camera was there. If the scenes shot where the Warhols descended on a BJM post-party are true then that was inexcusable exploitation to the max, if not, then it was a total fabrication, either way it made me uncomfortable, if that was the purpose? All the way thru this movie I kept wondering how the footage came about. Taken at face value, a nice portrait of the (tortured) genius we all believe ourselves to be.

UncleBobMartin The movie is about Anton Newcombe. The music and careers of the two bands are simply backdrop. It's only fair that Newcombe have the last word about the film, which at this writing you can find in the "news" section at the brianjonestownmassacre website. I'd link it here but IMDb won't permit it.Documentarians are limited by what the camera captures, as well as by the need to assemble a cohesive narrative from the somewhat-random occasions when chance has put the camera lens on a sight-line with relevant happenstance. In Dig!, fortune smiled on the Dandy Warhols, capturing their rise to the status of pop-idol candidates, as they formed slickly-produced pop confections for mass consumption, most notably "Bohemian Like You," a song that made them global darlings thanks to a Euro cell phone ad. No such luck for Brian Jonestown Massacre. The film captures little of what made the original BJM lineup great, with the sole exception of a single montage, lasting a minute or so, showing Newcombe creating/recording a number of brief instrumental parts, unremarkable in themselves, and concluding the sequence with a playback of the lush, shimmering sounds that had to have been in Newcombe's mind and soul before they could enter the world.Three commentaries accompany the film; one by the filmmakers, and two by the members of the bands (the BJM track is solely former members, and without Newcombe). Both the Warhols and BJM alumni point up this montage sequence as the "best" bit in the film, and I'd agree that, given the film's focus on Anton Newcombe, it is the only part of the film that sheds proper light on his gift, and seems too brief to lend proper balance to this attempted portrait of the "tortured artist."Interesting thing about commentaries is that, unlike film, they are recorded in real time -- one long take -- which can be more honestly revelatory than a documentary that takes shape primarily through editing.The Dandies do not come off well in their comments. If the rock and roll world extends the experience of high school life for its denizens -- as I believe it does -- the Dandies are the popularity-obsessed preppy types, the ones who listen to rock because it's what their peers do, while the BJM crew come off as the half-rejected, half-self-exiled outsiders (to insiders like the Dandies, "losers") that are the real rock spirit. BJM's Joel Gion, who talks a LOT, nails the film's message for me when he says (paraphrasing): "You can't forget that Anton has been able to do the only thing he ever said he wanted to do. Make a lot of great music."The Dandies, meanwhile, laugh too easily at every outrageous display in the course of Newcombe's meltdown (all the BJM footage here ends at 1997, before Newcombe quit heroin). Courtney Taylor-Taylor's discounting of Newcombe's commitment to his vision is summed up as follows: "He's 37 and still living in his car. You can download all his work at his website. He was so tired of being ripped off by everyone else, he's giving it all away. He could be making a mint." You can practically hear him shaking his head in disbelief.The film's shortcomings can't be blamed on the filmmakers; rather it's the difficulties of the documentary form, and the loss of cooperation by the film's subject, that makes this portrait of Newcombe so fragmentary. But it's likely the best we will get, outside of his music.I only rented disc one, which has the feature. Most of the extras are on disc two. Not renting that, as I've put in my order to buy the set.

newagephilosopher Do opposites really attract? After watching 20 minutes of the 2004 documentary DiG!, the story of two burgeoning west coast rock bands, Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols, devolves into a tale of polar opposites trying to exist on the same plane. There's BJM's lead singer Anton Newcombe and his combustible attitude leading a pack of drug-happy musicians, all of who are Anton's worst enemies. And then there's the Dandys' front man Courtney Taylor, whose laid back nature is a driving force behind The Dandy Warhols' tight-knit community of sonic revolution. Their paths cross many times, but never travel down the same course.The film revolves around Brian Jonestown Massacre, the greatest band to never make it. Why they've never made it is debatable, and much of the movie explores this dynamic through the voice-over quandaries of Courtney Taylor. Anton is dissected throughout the movie, whether the focus is his yo-yo attitude, his descent into heavy drug use, or his role as the root cause of the band's in fighting. What's never in question is Anton's penchant for writing and playing some of the best rock/pop songs this side of Brian Jonestown Massacre's namesake. He clearly is a musical genius, but his destructible personality is his professional downfall. It holds the band down and buries the egos of the contributing forces behind the band, the most notable being Matt Hollywood. Matt isn't looking for the limelight or the credit he rightfully deserves; rather, he just wants acknowledgment and acceptance from Anton. When it never comes, the band and Anton take a turn for the worse.Conversely, the Dandy Warhols' story acts as the counterbalance to the shenanigans of Brian Jonestown Massacre. The band earns the much sought after major label contract, only to discover the true nastiness of recording albums, making videos and having little label support. Whereas the strains of everyday band business weighs down on Anton, Courtney Taylor and company are able to persevere and push ahead. The Dandys learn to adapt without compromising their spirit or their sound, even if it means being at odds with Capitol and fashion photographer-turned-video director Dave LaChapelle.The wonder of DiG! is discovered within each band's interaction with the other. Anton is turned onto the Dandys from a tape he receives from a friend, and soon the bands meet and become quick party buddies. Performances throughout the west coast solidify this friendship until the Dandy Warhols get the call to big leagues, leaving Brian Jonestown Massacre to wallow in minor obscurity. Their paths continue to cross again in the wildest of places: at a guerrilla photo shoot for the Dandys at Brian Jonestown Massacre's home, when Courtney Taylor flies across the country to hang out with Anton and company on their first major American tour, or when Anton passes out Brian Jonestown Massacre albums to anyone and everyone outside of a Dandy Warhols performance in NYC as the Dandys question Anton's sanity.The sad truth behind DiG! is discovering that Anton, no matter how capable he is behind a musical instrument, is nothing more than a fallible human. His constant fights with audience members, band members and his past leave him angry at everything but himself. He may want to live in the '60s, but he can't give in to peace, love and happiness. No matter the success and failures he and Brian Jonestown Massacre face, they're doomed to live in musical hell -- obscurity. Meanwhile, the Dandy Warhols rise above to discover that they're a band on the rise when left to their own devices. Whether it's rekindling a love of music in the basking glow of European admiration, or pushing the envelope of sound, the band seems to have it all -- or at least, everything Anton Newcombe wants but will never let himself have.