Republished from the show notes of my other site, Fuds on Film.
The Beastie Boys Story is, and let me pause for a minute to prepare you for the sort of galaxy-brain level insights that you come to this podcast for, is the story, right, of the Beastie Boys. It’s a filmed stage show where the surviving members of the band, Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz, narrate a potted presentation of their life and career, from their early days, through initial success with Def-Jam as a frat-bro rock/rap parody of themselves, their regrets about becoming that mask, and their long road to reinvention and success on their own terms, a path that ended after the untimely death of Adam Yauch.
To a degree, I’m not sure there’s much need for more of a recap than that. MIke D and Ad-rock prove themselves to be engaging storytellers, and it’s an interesting story for fans who have some interest in their career. While I don’t think there’s anyone who would find this a disagreeable watch, I’m not sure it’s going to do all that much for people who aren’t already fan of their work. Thankfully, no such inhuman creature exists, so this is a moot point. Imagine! Not liking the Beastie Boys! The concept gives me the collywobbles.
It’s not immune to criticism, I suppose. It’s not exactly a warts and all expose, but then again there doesn’t really appear to be all that many warts to be exposed on these guys. They seem almost universally well regarded as artists, with the only blemish being the unabashedly misogynistic lyrics of their first album which they have been suitably bashful and apologetic for pretty much since the start of the 90s.
You could also say, and again, let me pause for a minute to prepare you for the sort of galaxy-brain level insights that you come to this podcast for, that this staged performance of a stage show, recorded on stage, comes across as a little stagey at points. Shocking, I know. There’s a few asides that were presumably at some point ad-libs that they liked and incorporated into the telling that are seem a little forced, however at this point I’m very much picking at nits.
I shouldn’t give the impression that it’s just them on stage delivering a PowerPoint presentation, there’s plenty of cuts to archival footage either as B-roll or to show an important or funny moment, and director Spike Jonze and the editors, Jeff Buchanan and Zoe Schack have done what they can to keep things visually interesting, despite the limitations of the format.
So, yes, minor quibbles aside, while the Beastie Boys Story is by no means life changing cinema, it’s a light, breezy, sometime touching and often funny look at one of my favourite artists and I enjoyed it a great deal.