Beastie Boys Story

A recording of a stage show in which the two surviving Beastie Boys tell their own story. Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz stand on the stage of the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn. Behind them is a large screen, and archive footage runs as they talk: the punk band of the early 1980s, the first record, fame beyond anything they expected, and where they ended up afterwards. The honest part is here: the two do not defend their past. They say plainly how stupid their early stage identities were and how their attitudes then look now. The third member, Adam Yauch, died of cancer in 2012. The show returns to him throughout, and archive interviews are set inside the telling; that is where the film's emotional weight comes from. Spike Jonze directed; he is close to the group and has worked with them since the music-video years. It was to be shown in cinemas, the pandemic changed the plan, and it appeared on a streaming service in April 2020. A warm and honest record for admirers of the group and followers of music documentary. For a viewer expecting a conventional documentary, this is a stage show; the text is rehearsed and the telling is entirely under the pair's control.