In an episode of "The Office," Jim suggests he and his co-workers kill time with a round of "Desert Island Movies." "The game is not Guilty Pleasure Movies! Desert Island Movies are the movies you’re going to watch for the rest of your life! Forever!," Jim explains.
My version of "Desert Island Movies" is a little different from Jim's. My Desert Island list features a selection of 10 music documentaries I could watch for the rest of my life. I also implemented another rule: I couldn't select any of the usual suspects. As much as I love Monterey Pop, The Last Waltz, Woodstock, The Grateful Dead Movie, Gimme Shelter, Bob Dylan: Don’t Look Back and The Decline of Western Civilization, my list showcases music docs that are unexpected choices and aren't quite as mainstream or massively acclaimed.
It may be a bit subjective, but my blog, my rules. Away we go!
10. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky crafted something different from a straightforward, puff profile flick about the most successful heavy metal rockers of all time. In the 141-minute film centered around Metallica, they show how truly difficult it is to do what Metallica continue to do: Beyond the ability to regularly release new music and sell out stadiums, they have stuck together with most original members for nearly 40 years. Some Kind of Monster shows just how similar a rock band is to marriage: You must constantly put into the union or it quickly dissolves.
9. Mistaken For Strangers
As The National rapidly rose to international indie rock stars, frontman Matt Berninger's younger brother, Tom, crawled slowly through his life, unmotivated, unemployed and without plans for his future. As a sympathetic gesture, his successful big bro offered him the opportunity to go on tour with The National and document it all on film. In wonderful meta fashion, Mistaken For Strangers becomes more about a loser trying to figure out who he is, while standing in the shadow of his famous brother. The result is painful at times, but also candidly honest, funny and loaded with stellar concert footage.
8. The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Beck, Sonic Youth and Nirvana have covered his songs, Kurt Cobain called him the "greatest songwriter on Earth" and Matt Groening has championed his music for years, but Daniel Johnston never found any kind of mainstream success. While stories about geniuses battling mental illness span back to Van Gogh and earlier, Johnston's tale is still quite moving. In addition to recording hundreds of his songs on cassette tapes, the prolific singer-songwriter-artist recorded hundreds of hours of his daily life, which director Jeff Feuerzeig weaves seamlessly into the film. A couple poignant moments: Johnston's mother yells at him after he's arrested for painting hundreds of Jesus fish inside the Statue of Liberty and Johnston reads out loud from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders about his own mental illness.
7. Sublime: Stories, Tales, Lies & Exaggerations
Sublime's Bradley Nowell represents another one of the gone-too-soon rock stars, who had yet to peak, before his life was cut short due to a heroin overdose. The 130-minute doc is gritty and almost looks like a student film, but it nicely captures Nowell's raw talent, which is evident in footage of his performances at friends' barbecues, house parties and intimate after-hours moments when he's just messing around on an acoustic guitar. Nowell's voice could reach soulful strides with ease. He created a new genre from fusing all the types of music he loved—hip-hop, punk rock and reggae—into one. Sublime was the band, but Nowell was Sublime, and while many bands have tried to follow in his footsteps—311, Slightly Stoopid and Dirty Heads—there will never be another.
6. If I Should Fall From Grace: The Shane MacGowan Story
If I Should Fall From Grace is another portrait of a mentally ill musical genius. Former Pogues singer Shane MacGowan is missing several teeth, disheveled and fall-down-drunk most of the time throughout the film. He's like a car accident you can't turn away from. But he's somewhat superhuman, still managing to perform his duties fairly well as The Pogues frontman. MacGowan can care less about what anyone thinks about him or his self-destructive lifestyle. There's never a dull moment as the film follows MacGowan throughout his early years in England and Ireland to his formation of The Pogues, which he eventually gets kicked out of, to his new band The Popes.
5. Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest
Actor Michael Rapaport in his directorial debut, delivers an entertaining in-depth film about A Tribe Called Quest. As one of the most innovative hip-hop outfits ever, Tribe drew from a pantheon of musical influences, with a jazz-laden backbone, to create a fresh sound that will forever be credited to them. As I mentioned, a band is like a marriage, it needs constant work in order to survive. Unfortunately, Tribe frontmen and childhood friends, Q-Tip and Phife Dawg, let ego get in the way, leading to the group's demise in 1998. Rapaport expertly intertwines the many moments of tension between the two musicians with Tribe's formation and rise to beloved hip-hop trendsetters.
4. The White Stripes - Under Great White Northern Lights
Emmett Malloy's film follows The White Stripes 2007 tour across Canada. Along with a ton of killer live concert footage, the doc cuts into the enigma surrounding the relationship between Jack White and Meg White, something the duo had carefully hid from the public. Jack had always introduced Meg as his sister, though they were married at one time. A few intimate moments between the two exposes a soul behind the collaboration that wasn't evident before. In a particularly emotional scene, Meg sits next to Jack at the piano while he unleashes an intense rendition of "White Moon," moving Meg to tears. Jack puts his arm around her as she continues to cry quietly in his arms.
I'm not providing any info about my top three Desert Island music doc picks. Check out the included trailers.
All I will say: Watch these films ASAP!
3. The Flaming Lips: The Fearless Freaks
2. You’re Gonna Miss Me
1. DiG!
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