Dig!

Two bands come up at the same time and become friends. Anton Newcombe leads The Brian Jonestown Massacre; gifted, prolific, and unable to get on with anyone. Courtney Taylor-Taylor leads The Dandy Warhols; more calculating, and able to work with record companies. Newcombe hits his own band on stage at a showcase. Contracts collapse. The Dandy Warhols rise; their videos are on rotation and the tours are full. Newcombe counts it a betrayal and writes songs at them. The documentary records both over seven years. Ondi Timoner directs. Anton Newcombe, Courtney Taylor-Taylor, Joel Gion and members of both bands are in it. It is an American production. The documentary won the grand jury prize for documentary at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. The filming took about seven years and hundreds of hours of material were gathered. The narrative sets the two bands against each other; one refuses to sell and the other sells, and the film judges neither. The matter it treats is talent destroying itself; Newcombe's behaviour is at its centre. After the film came out Newcombe objected to it and said the narrative misrepresented him. The narrative also records the independent music scene of the nineties. Its limit is method; the editing selects in order to build a story and that selection is contested. Who it is for: viewers who like music documentary and the independent scene. Who it is not for: it is scattered, partisan, and the ending bleak.