15, 110mins
IF THERE was an alchemic formula to create the perfect rock documentary, then Dig! would be close to pure gold. The story, shot over seven years, of the bands the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre, comes with juggernauts full of drugs and alcohol, over-inflated egos, onstage brawling and ill- advised facial hair. All that’s missing are a few good songs.
When we first meet Anton Newcombe, the volatile frontman of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, he’s brandishing his sitar like an axe and predicting that his band will be at the forefront of “a musical revolution”. Initially he’s convinced that the Dandies will be with him on the front line. But when the Dandies show themselves as being as adept at negotiating the corporate world of a major record label as they are at racking up nights of rock excess, Newcombe begins to see them as the enemy. The film counterpoints the Dandy Warhols’ rise with Newcombe’s self-destruction; their smooth ascent from rock band to pop commodity with Newcombe’s impotent raging against the sell-outs of the industry.
Yet this immensely entertaining and poignant film fails to convince us of the one thing it takes for granted — that these bands actually matter. The Dandy Warhols gave us some catchy pop songs and a mobile phone commercial, but that’s about it as far as lasting cultural significance goes. Meanwhile the word “genius” is regularly bandied around with reference to Newcombe. On the evidence of this film, Newcombe is a lot of things — virtually certifiable, for example — but I’m not convinced that a genius is one of them.