Ondi Timoner's 2004 documentary DiG! is a tale of two bands: the first being a fairly well-adjusted band in the form of The Dandy Warhols who rose to modest prominence in the mid 90's with an album released on Capitol Records before falling to the more-often-than-not-inevitable hatchet job by their label when the first single from their first album on Capitol failed to meet ridiculous expectations. The band then garnered more success on their own in 2000 with the college-radio hit "Bohemian Like You". If DiG! were about The Dandy Warhols I would say this movie would at best be your typical band-released bio DVD. Fortunately the flip-side of the coin would be a much more interesting story with The Dandy Warhol's frienemy band, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, a much more chaotic but infinitely more talented band led by Anton Newcombe. This is a great documentary and so it should come as no surprise when it won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2004. The film follows around both bands over seven years garnering a vast sea of footage (reportedly between 1500 and 2000 hours depending on who you talk to). The immense amount of footage is one of the bigger aspects of what makes this documentary so great as Timoner never has the need to reference any kind of stock footage and any talking head moments are immediately accompanied by some sort of supporting footage and for the most part the footage tells the story itself. Newcombe has come out as saying that the film is unfair but in spite of Dandy Warhol's leader Courtney Taylor-Taylor's narrative possibly skewing the film, the impression that I get is that you have one band that has basically had the same career as many other bands. If you can pay the bills being in a band then that's great, but I never get the impression that The Dandy Warhols are anything special, and often certain members come off like arrogant pricks (with the exception of Taylor-Taylor who is certainly self-confident but he repeatedly praises The BJM and Newcombe, though who knows how much of this perception is in the editing). Newcombe comes off in the film as eccentric but prolific. Perhaps Newcombe is right that the film portrays The Brian Jonestown Massacre as ending or that The Dandy Warhols are somehow more successful despite Newcombe being the more talented one, but that to me is just the drama of filmmaking (one we would hope gets left out of documentary filmmaking, but a narrative is a narrative even if its real). Generally I think documentary film watchers will go the extra mile to do the research on their own and if they like the music of The Brian Jonestown Massacre (and how can you not at least be intrigued by the way the band is portrayed in this film) then they will discover the music for years to come. I hope at some point Ondi Timoner decides to create another epilogue to this film since there is more of a story to tell, especially with the recent return after an eleven year absence by Matt Hollywood. I love all the aspects of this film though as its really well cut together, compelling, and I love the dirty quality of the footage from various cheap video cameras with some film rolled in as well. The mixed media of the doc gives the whole thing more of a music feel and only adds to the aura of the events. My favorite moments from the film also come from the interview segments with Genesis P-Orridge of Psychic TV, especially when discussing the way mainstream music labels destroy music. Interestingly that becomes a compelling b-story of the film. There is probably enough footage here to make a compelling argument for another documentary about the evils of the music industry. My other favorite moment comes when both bands are reaching a certain level of success and while The Dandy Warhols are partying with photographer David LaChapelle, The Brian Jonestown Massacre are partying with actor Harry Dean Stanton (the lead of one my favorite films, Paris, Texas). However you feel about those images would probably mirror how you feel about each band respectively. Whether you are a fan of either of these bands or not I highly recommend watching DiG!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Album a Day (Film Edition): Ondi Timoner - DiG!
Ondi Timoner's 2004 documentary DiG! is a tale of two bands: the first being a fairly well-adjusted band in the form of The Dandy Warhols who rose to modest prominence in the mid 90's with an album released on Capitol Records before falling to the more-often-than-not-inevitable hatchet job by their label when the first single from their first album on Capitol failed to meet ridiculous expectations. The band then garnered more success on their own in 2000 with the college-radio hit "Bohemian Like You". If DiG! were about The Dandy Warhols I would say this movie would at best be your typical band-released bio DVD. Fortunately the flip-side of the coin would be a much more interesting story with The Dandy Warhol's frienemy band, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, a much more chaotic but infinitely more talented band led by Anton Newcombe. This is a great documentary and so it should come as no surprise when it won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2004. The film follows around both bands over seven years garnering a vast sea of footage (reportedly between 1500 and 2000 hours depending on who you talk to). The immense amount of footage is one of the bigger aspects of what makes this documentary so great as Timoner never has the need to reference any kind of stock footage and any talking head moments are immediately accompanied by some sort of supporting footage and for the most part the footage tells the story itself. Newcombe has come out as saying that the film is unfair but in spite of Dandy Warhol's leader Courtney Taylor-Taylor's narrative possibly skewing the film, the impression that I get is that you have one band that has basically had the same career as many other bands. If you can pay the bills being in a band then that's great, but I never get the impression that The Dandy Warhols are anything special, and often certain members come off like arrogant pricks (with the exception of Taylor-Taylor who is certainly self-confident but he repeatedly praises The BJM and Newcombe, though who knows how much of this perception is in the editing). Newcombe comes off in the film as eccentric but prolific. Perhaps Newcombe is right that the film portrays The Brian Jonestown Massacre as ending or that The Dandy Warhols are somehow more successful despite Newcombe being the more talented one, but that to me is just the drama of filmmaking (one we would hope gets left out of documentary filmmaking, but a narrative is a narrative even if its real). Generally I think documentary film watchers will go the extra mile to do the research on their own and if they like the music of The Brian Jonestown Massacre (and how can you not at least be intrigued by the way the band is portrayed in this film) then they will discover the music for years to come. I hope at some point Ondi Timoner decides to create another epilogue to this film since there is more of a story to tell, especially with the recent return after an eleven year absence by Matt Hollywood. I love all the aspects of this film though as its really well cut together, compelling, and I love the dirty quality of the footage from various cheap video cameras with some film rolled in as well. The mixed media of the doc gives the whole thing more of a music feel and only adds to the aura of the events. My favorite moments from the film also come from the interview segments with Genesis P-Orridge of Psychic TV, especially when discussing the way mainstream music labels destroy music. Interestingly that becomes a compelling b-story of the film. There is probably enough footage here to make a compelling argument for another documentary about the evils of the music industry. My other favorite moment comes when both bands are reaching a certain level of success and while The Dandy Warhols are partying with photographer David LaChapelle, The Brian Jonestown Massacre are partying with actor Harry Dean Stanton (the lead of one my favorite films, Paris, Texas). However you feel about those images would probably mirror how you feel about each band respectively. Whether you are a fan of either of these bands or not I highly recommend watching DiG!
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