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Review: Dig!
"Through the lens of Timoner’s camera, the audience gets a unique perspective as to just how hard it really is to make it in the music business."
By Ursula Mehl
Dig!, the new feature-length documentary by Ondi Timoner, is quite simply a gem. It should be required viewing for anybody who has ever bought or listened to music – meaning everyone.
Dig! is the story of two young musicians: Anton Newcombe, the leader of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Courtney Taylor, the leader of The Dandy Warhols. Compiled from over 1500 hours of footage, the movie gives an insider’s view into their struggle with fame, fortune (or lack thereof) and the corporate world of the recording industry.
When Newcombe and Taylor first meet, they bond over their mutual desire to start a musical revolution, and to do it without conforming to the desires of the recording industry. However, the choices that they make in trying to accomplish that goal put them on very different paths.
The film is narrated by Taylor and focuses on Newcombe, one of the most brilliant but unrecognized musicians of our time. His band, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, independently released 11 albums in ten years. Over the course of the movie you see Newcombe’s creative brilliance descend into madness as his drug habits begin to spiral out of control. The camera is right there capturing every success, failure, breakdown, breakup and fight that happens in the band.
Dig! not only depicts Newcombe’s hardships, but also follows the more well-adjusted Dandy Warhols as they grapple with signing onto a major label. The movie spans seven years in total, which is the amount of time director Timoner spent following both bands around. Her patience has more than paid off with the film she gives us.
Through the lens of Timoner’s camera, the audience gets a unique perspective as to just how hard it really is to make it in the music business. Dig! tells the real story behind these bands, and does it with unflinching honesty. It’s VH1’s "Behind the Music" without the commerical sponsorships. It is one of those rare movies that I want everybody I know to see. This is not because I think they should see it, but because they need to see it.
Turning on the radio today, it seems that all the singers are simply products of the numerous music-themed contest TV shows – everything from "Making the Band" to "American Idol”, in other words, take an ordinary person and make them into a pop star. The sound, the look, the name, it all comes in a neat little package. But it’s all fake. Dig! shows you the lives of true musicians, and it feels so good to watch something real.
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