Thehibikiew Not even bad in a good way

Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Hayleigh Joseph This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

cheesecrop Dig! is a very interesting look at a love/hate relationship between two bands, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and the Dandy Warhols. It begins around 1995, and ends around 2002/2003. The documentary is narrated by Courtney Taylor, who happens to be the singer for the Dandy's. He gives a picture of his own group as not being up to the standards of the other, while openly praising the BJM leader, Anton Newcombe.The footage shows Newcombe as being a control freak. At the same time, it is clear he has some talent. Despite this, he tends to sabotage his own chances through some ill-timed decisions. My personal take on the situation is that Newcombe is simply frightened of what pressures success might hold. At some level, he lacks the confidence to take the next step.At the same time, he is clearly jealous of the success that the Dandy Warhols manage to have. The Warhols are slightly more conventional, which makes them appear as the lesser talent. That being said, both bands state that they are attempting to make some sort of musical "revolution", at the beginning. Later in the documentary, one of the Dandy's hits the nail on the head regarding the BJM, noting that revolutions don't work when they stay underground. It's a telling line, as both bands started near the end of a true period of musical upheaval, in the early-to-mid 90's.In the end, neither group ever quite reached the stage of provoking any sort of musical "revolution". Being bands of that particular period, they both made solid, credible rock music, something that we could use a lot more of. That alone makes the film worth a look. It is a truly odd piece, with the more commercially "successful" (if that's what you can call it) group desperately making concessions to the other. The Dandy's are denigrated for their success, while the BJM are given praise, despite the fact that little gets through to back this up. I guess this is supposed to be an "art vs. commerce"-styled logic, but neither art nor commerce is really served here. At the same time, it's incredibly interesting...

C.H Newell I enjoyed this documentary, but only because it was a fairly thorough look at how the music industry often works by parallelling two bands' journeys: The Dandy Warhols & The Brian Jonestown Massacre. I did not enjoy watching Anton Newcombe being praised as a genius and some sort of musical god by people who are clearly too spineless to be honest with someone about how big of a maniac they are, or witnessing unfortunate audiences who paid money to see a show only to see a regression of the BJM band into ego-filled, hysterical fights. The documentary succeeds by taking a scathing look at both bands, but most certainly focusing on the volatile nature of Anton's personality. It does not succeed in making you like Anton, or Courtney for that matter; the latter is not nearly as egotistical, but often falls into diva-ish behaviour while condemning others for acting the same way.My only opinion on Anton is this: BJM makes good music, but for people to drool over him, and say he is a musical genius, or one of the best musicians ever is foolish. Sure, maybe he had a hand in starting the whole 60s revival that is so fully in swing now in all its hipster glory, but the fact remains his music is completely derivative of the 1960s and 1970s. Yes, Bob Dylan was building on what musicians like Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson had done before, but he made something new out of it, and fashioned it into a way to 'fight the system', or at least wake people up to TRY and fight it. Anton doesn't come with a message other than "I AM ABSOLUTELY CRAZY". I don't care if he plays 80 instruments, I don't care if he puts out three albums in 1996, I don't care how many recording sessions in various places across the world he does- nothing changes the fact that he acts like a spoiled brat who didn't get what he wanted, and throws tantrums, or belittles those around him. I am a musician- when somebody fools up on stage, you don't stop and freak out or hit somebody, you just keep playing because most times NOBODY notices. Yet Anton claims he is a musician, and trashes a show just because someone didn't hit the right chord. All the while everyone around him simply puts up with it, and claims he can't get a deal because "he won't conform". I'm sorry, but beating up your band or throwing a 12-year old girl tantrum on stage because of something so minor is not non-conformism.. it's simply a boy who has never grown into a man. Finally, what I find hilarious is that Anton continually wonders how he stacks up against The Dandy Warhols (even though he makes it clear he thinks they and Courtney are a joke compared to his band), and even at shows he claims they'll get "the biggest record deal of all time", yet he says it's not about being for sale (like he says the Beatles were). Then later on he invokes The White Stripes' name, basically laying claim to how he paved the way for them to come on the scene, which I found to be in highly poor taste; he slams new bands for not telling people who influenced them, and yet through the entire documentary I never once hear him talk positively about an influence of his from the 1960s (a decade he so shamelessly riffs on and copies).All in all, I give this documentary a 6 out of 10. It's fairly well made, but even though I have a lot of opinions on Anton, I feel there was a heavy degree of negative tone when showing the BJM on screen; I can't imagine there weren't at least SOME good times for the band to enjoy. I also find having Courtney Taylor do the voice-over narration for this documentary was a little strange, and it sort of put things in an immediate perspective of "Okay- we're going to see more of the plight on The Dandy Warhols side", which kicks things off assuming most of the drama will come from Anton and the BJM (which of course it did, but that isn't the point). The best thing about this documentary is how it portrays the bands; we can clearly see The Dandy Warhols changed themselves a little from where they started, and this is possibly why they've received more mainstream attention, as opposed to BJM. Although I don't agree with the conformity stance many have on Anton, the BJM definitely hasn't tailored themselves towards being marketable, as even the rest of the band seems perfectly happy with letting their 'leader' terrorize them for the chance at enjoying some moderate level of success; this is probably why they will never reach the mainstream in the way Courtney did with his band. I recommend watching this film, and I dare you to still like Anton at the end. I have never disliked somebody more while watching a documentary, and I have watched a ton of them on serial killers, so.. you be the judge.

flamencoprof Shot into car from through the windscreen, someone is playing someone else their latest song, someone else didn't react, according to the voice-over. I just wonder how that came to be made. There were too many scenes in this movie that I wondered about how come a camera was there. If the scenes shot where the Warhols descended on a BJM post-party are true then that was inexcusable exploitation to the max, if not, then it was a total fabrication, either way it made me uncomfortable, if that was the purpose? All the way thru this movie I kept wondering how the footage came about. Taken at face value, a nice portrait of the (tortured) genius we all believe ourselves to be.

UncleBobMartin The movie is about Anton Newcombe. The music and careers of the two bands are simply backdrop. It's only fair that Newcombe have the last word about the film, which at this writing you can find in the "news" section at the brianjonestownmassacre website. I'd link it here but IMDb won't permit it.Documentarians are limited by what the camera captures, as well as by the need to assemble a cohesive narrative from the somewhat-random occasions when chance has put the camera lens on a sight-line with relevant happenstance. In Dig!, fortune smiled on the Dandy Warhols, capturing their rise to the status of pop-idol candidates, as they formed slickly-produced pop confections for mass consumption, most notably "Bohemian Like You," a song that made them global darlings thanks to a Euro cell phone ad. No such luck for Brian Jonestown Massacre. The film captures little of what made the original BJM lineup great, with the sole exception of a single montage, lasting a minute or so, showing Newcombe creating/recording a number of brief instrumental parts, unremarkable in themselves, and concluding the sequence with a playback of the lush, shimmering sounds that had to have been in Newcombe's mind and soul before they could enter the world.Three commentaries accompany the film; one by the filmmakers, and two by the members of the bands (the BJM track is solely former members, and without Newcombe). Both the Warhols and BJM alumni point up this montage sequence as the "best" bit in the film, and I'd agree that, given the film's focus on Anton Newcombe, it is the only part of the film that sheds proper light on his gift, and seems too brief to lend proper balance to this attempted portrait of the "tortured artist."Interesting thing about commentaries is that, unlike film, they are recorded in real time -- one long take -- which can be more honestly revelatory than a documentary that takes shape primarily through editing.The Dandies do not come off well in their comments. If the rock and roll world extends the experience of high school life for its denizens -- as I believe it does -- the Dandies are the popularity-obsessed preppy types, the ones who listen to rock because it's what their peers do, while the BJM crew come off as the half-rejected, half-self-exiled outsiders (to insiders like the Dandies, "losers") that are the real rock spirit. BJM's Joel Gion, who talks a LOT, nails the film's message for me when he says (paraphrasing): "You can't forget that Anton has been able to do the only thing he ever said he wanted to do. Make a lot of great music."The Dandies, meanwhile, laugh too easily at every outrageous display in the course of Newcombe's meltdown (all the BJM footage here ends at 1997, before Newcombe quit heroin). Courtney Taylor-Taylor's discounting of Newcombe's commitment to his vision is summed up as follows: "He's 37 and still living in his car. You can download all his work at his website. He was so tired of being ripped off by everyone else, he's giving it all away. He could be making a mint." You can practically hear him shaking his head in disbelief.The film's shortcomings can't be blamed on the filmmakers; rather it's the difficulties of the documentary form, and the loss of cooperation by the film's subject, that makes this portrait of Newcombe so fragmentary. But it's likely the best we will get, outside of his music.I only rented disc one, which has the feature. Most of the extras are on disc two. Not renting that, as I've put in my order to buy the set.