It is a huge challenge to remain relevant as a music artist. You only have to look at the number of one hit wonders (Big Shaq, PSY etc) who enjoyed very short and extreme success, but did not manage to turn that into a lasting career. Even big artists are only as good as their last album and have to keep trying to stay relevant. If you look at hip hop, the number of real stars is very small. Well-known groups and artists from the 80s and 90s have disappeared or have been mostly forgotten. One of the exceptions to this were the Beastie Boys. A group that started as a punk group in the 80s, made the switch to hip hop and evolved into proper musicians who made what they wanted, even if they were all instrumental songs. After Adam Yauch (MCA) died of cancer in 2012, the other members decided to stop making music. They previously released a book and now there is this documentary, directed by Spike Jonze.
The format chosen here is a theater performance in which Mike D and Adrock are on stage and tell about their lives in an almost two-hour show. How the band got together, what the success did to them, the regrets they had about certain choices and of course the impact of Yauch’s death.
With lots of archival footage and a nice presentation by the two men, the Beastie Boys Story delivers an interesting and sometimes emotional documentary. The two read their story from an autocue, which does not really detract from the story they tell. As a viewer you witness their personal journey, which started in their early teens. Although Spike Jonze directs, there is of course little experimental work to do with these kinds of registrations. Above all, it is clearly important to visualize and edit it well. The end result is a movie that fans of the Beastie Boys will definitely enjoy.
Beastie Boys Story is available through Apple+
[score8]