March 26, 2004

Seeking Fame With Amps and Attitude

ig!" a new documentary by Ondi Timoner, gives a cinéma vérité spin to the endlessly fascinating pop-music soap opera formula of VH1's "Behind the Music." But Ms. Timoner's film, which traces the linked fortunes of not one band but two — the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre — feels more archetypal than formulaic, and also more real.

For seven years, she followed both bands, interviewing their members and capturing their on- and off-stage triumphs and catastrophes, and a result is one of those heaven-sent narratives, like "Hoop Dreams" or "Startup.com," in which the contingency and chaos of events coalesce into a resonant and satisfying story.

If universities ever start graduate programs in rock stardom, "Dig!" will surely be a cornerstone of the curriculum, for it works as both an instruction manual and a cautionary tale. It's like an extended gloss on that exuberant, cynical Byrds song that begins, "So you wanna be a rock 'n' roll star, well listen now, to what I say . . . "

As their names suggest, the two bands shared a taste for labored puns and a semi-ironic devotion to the pop culture of the 1960's. The Massacre was named for the Rolling Stones guitarist and 60's martyr Brian Jones, and at times its leader, Anton Newcombe, seems determined to provide a grim punch line to the joke by following Jones's self-destructive example.

A prolific songwriter who plays dozens of instruments and who sees himself as a revolutionary figure, Mr. Newcombe also possesses a sad talent for sabotaging his own chances of success. After a while, his bouts of drug use, his flights into paranoia and his habit of antagonizing (and at times physically attacking) band mates and audience members become grimly predictable, and a tragic ending to his story feels inevitable.

What happens is a little more complicated, partly because the music business is not as simple as Mr. Newcombe, who holds fast to increasingly Quixotic notions of artistic integrity, thinks it is. As the Massacre falls prey to bad karma, bad luck and bad decisions, the Dandys, who at first seemed to be heading in the same direction, manage to do a little better.

"We must be the most well-adjusted band in the world," one of them says, and "Dig!" supports this hypothesis. Even though they dabble in decadence and butt heads with record labels and video directors, the Dandys nonetheless keep their act together, winning a huge following in Europe.

The head Dandy, Courtney Taylor, is unstinting in his admiration for Mr. Newcombe, whose talent he rates above his own. But the movie demonstrates that discipline and professionalism, especially given the irrational state of the industry right now, are at least as important as genius. And while it is hard not to be seduced by Mr. Newcombe's furious charisma, it is also hard to accuse the Dandy Warhols, as he occasionally does, of selling out.

It is hard, in part, because the music itself stays in the background. Viewers unfamiliar with Mr. Newcombe's prodigious output — dozens of albums, most of them self-released — will have a hard time evaluating the quality and influence of his work. But a great many people who have no particular reason to speak well of him — the managers and record company executives he abused, the friends he alienated and scorned, Mr. Taylor above all — speak of him as a virtual demigod, on a plane with such musical deities as Bob Dylan and John Lennon.

Such hyperbole gives "Dig," which will be shown tonight and Sunday in the New Directors/New Films series and released in the fall by Palm Pictures, a heady kick that balances its implicit skepticism.

DIG!

Written, edited, produced and directed by Ondi Timoner; directors of photography, Ms. Timoner, Vasco Lucas Nunes and David Timoner; released by Palm Pictures. Running time: 105 minutes. This film is not rated. Shown tonight at 8:30 at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, and Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at the MoMA Gramercy Theater, 127 East 23rd Street, Manhattan, as part of the 33rd New Directors/New Films series of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the department of film and media of the Museum of Modern Art.

WITH: Courtney Taylor (Narrator); The Brian Jonestown Massacre: Anton Newcombe, Joel, Gion, Matt Hollywood, Peter Hayes, Jeff Davies, Dean Taylor and Brad Artley; The Dandy Warhols: Courtney Taylor, Zia McCabe, Peter Holstrom, Eric Hedford and Brent DeBoer; and Bob Newcombe, David LaChapelle, Sophie, David Deresinski, Michael Dutcher and Patsy Latschea.