Dig!

RS: 4of 4 Stars

Music

There's no nice way to say it: Judging by the evidence in the riveting documentary Dig!, Anton Newcombe, frontman of cult-fave indie-rock act the Brian Jonestown Massacre, is out of his mind. The gifted Newcombe's systematic destruction of his own promising career -- ruining a major-label showcase by getting into a fistfight with his bandmates, blowing his advance money on a bunch of sitars -- is the tragicomic heart of the film, which follows Newcombe and his band for seven years. It's rendered all the more poignant by the growing stardom of the documentary's other featured band, the Massacre's onetime friends the Dandy Warhols, who are as cheerful and functional as Newcombe and his band are tortured. Warhols singer Courtney Taylor provides the film's narration, and for all his success and cheek-sucking vanity, he seems to know that Newcombe is the real star. Overall, Dig! may be the most unflinching look at the rock world since Cocksucker Blues -- and you don't even need to seek out a blurry bootleg to see it.