play_arrow
AamRadio Tu Radio 24-7
These recently released documentaries celebrate the best of music from Beastie Boys to Tina Turner.
Peter Jackson’s three-part documentary, The Beatles: Get Back, was a hit critically and commercially on Disney+ late last year. The Lord of the Rings director gave fans who thought they’d seen everything there was to possibly see about the Fab Four a never-before-seen look into the preparation that went into the group’s final performance. A one-hour version, titled The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert, has been formatted in IMAX and was just released in cinemas.
With the success of both of these films, here’s a look at other recent music documentaries that give fans new insight into legendary acts and moments from the past and present.
Beastie Boys Story (2020)
Written, directed and produced by the man behind their famous “Sabotage” music video, Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich), the film was released exclusively on Apple TV+. Surviving band members Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz (Adam “MCA” Yauch sadly passed away from cancer in 2012) tell the story of the influential rap rock trio. This documentary works differently than most, though. Filmed by Jonze over three nights at Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre in 2019, it was meant to promote the release of their coffee table book, Beastie Boys Book, with Diamond and Horovitz telling their story to a live audience while photos and video play on a large screen behind them. It’s more than a simple history of the band, hitting the major beats of how they got their start, meeting Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons, making License to Ill, etc. This is a powerful coming-of-age tale of three close friends who grew up together and experienced life and death at each other’s side. Yauch is remembered throughout, and at times it feels as if he’s on the stage one last time.
The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (2020)
Movie producer Frank Marshall directs this HBO documentary that gives a look into the ups and downs of the Gibb brothers and their iconic band, the Bee Gees. Robin Gibb and Maurice Gibb have passed on, but they are here in archival footage and interviews, along with a new interview from surviving brother, Barry Gibb. Their rise to phenomenal success is covered, and after a time, we see an almost equally phenomenal backlash. Decades later, however, the band endures, as their influence is shown through interviews with the likes of Noel Gallagher, Justin Timberlake, Chris Martin and Nick Jonas. What works best is when the focus stays on Barry as he talks about the love he has for his lost brothers, and the regret and pain he still carries with him.
Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry (2021)
Another Apple TV+ documentary, at two and a half hours, is a long but worthwhile trip that gives an intimate glimpse into the rocket ship ride to fame of arguably today’s biggest star, Billie Eilish. We follow the behind the scenes day-to-day life of Eilish, who beneath it all is just another anxiety riddled teenager living with her parents. She goes through the normal motions of life, experiencing the small yet personally huge moments as she gets her driver’s license and her first car. We then counter that with the immense popularity she carries all over the world, her brother and collaborator Finneas there by her side. It’s an awkward and almost overwhelming rollercoaster, the highs of being so loved, countered with the lows of constant criticism and so many demands and expectations being placed on someone so young. Director R.J. Cutler has made documentaries about Oliver North, Dick Cheney and John Belushi. These men experienced the greatest of downfalls and tragedy. Here’s hoping that Cutler’s focus on a talented young woman helps protect her from the pitfalls of fame.
Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road (2021)
In this documentary, available to digitally rent now, we get the usual covering of a life, from humble beginnings to monster success, and as always, a fall along the way. There are interviews with praise from contemporaries such as Elton John, Bruce Springsteen and Linda Perry. What sets this documentary apart is that the subject himself tells his story. That’s of course been done many times, but it’s especially meaningful when the subject is the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson. He talks with Jason Fine, a close friend and editor at Rolling Stone, but it takes a different path that’s not about studios and two men sitting across from each other under the lights. Wilson’s struggle with mental illness has been discussed for decades and now at almost 80, getting him to open up isn’t easy, so Fine takes Wilson for drives, where they talk about life while listening to music. Wilson admits to being very nervous, and you can see how uncomfortable he is at times as they drive around California, stopping along at places of impact in his life and career. Still, there’s so much life and excitement left in him, and a story that is not yet complete.
Miss Americana (2020)
This Netflix film, from Emmy winning director Lana Wilson, takes a backstage look at pop culture giant Taylor Swift. We see Swift as she truly is, what she really thinks and feels. She talks about how she tried to be “the nice girl” for so long, who always said and did the things everyone wanted, with no controversy, except for the building paparazzi fascination with her love life. She disappeared from public view for a year, and now she’s back, being herself, saying what she wants, even when it gets her in trouble (like sharing her political views), critics be damned. We get to see a megastar, after almost two decades in the spotlight, finally able to be herself. She is free of the chains and as candid as ever, a multidimensional person, and not a simple pretty pop princess. This film doesn’t just show a look behind the curtain, but a look behind the person who has been there all along.
Summer of Soul (2021)
Ahmir Thompson, better known as Questlove, drummer for The Roots and Jimmy’s Fallon’s The Tonight Show, makes his directorial debut with this look at the Harlem Cultural Festival, available now on Hulu. It happened in 1969, the same year as Woodstock, and would come to be known as the Black Woodstock, but was not remembered with the esteem that its counterpart received, until now. Never before released footage shows the scene of six weekends of major Black artists including Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, B.B. King and Gladys Knight & the Pips. We get to see the performances from these music titans for the first time, along with the political impact. The Black Panthers handled security and many activists and leaders such as Jesse Jackson were on hand. More than anything, the film and the concert show us that being Black is something to be proud of and celebrated.
The Velvet Underground (2021)
Academy Award-winning director Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, I’m Not There), brings us his first feature documentary about these Rock and Roll Hall of Famers. Available on Apple TV+, this film takes a look at what made the unique Lou Reed-led New York City rock band such a success. This powerful tribute shows how the burgeoning art world of the 1960s and the band’s relationship with Andy Warhol helped launch them into stardom, and the decade after that saw them as unlikely superstars. Through interviews with founding members John Cale and Moe Tucker, along with other influential names of the time, as well as a look at archival footage, never-before-seen shows, and short films from Warhol himself, the viewer is transported back to the 1960s. This is not your standard paint-by-numbers documentary, however, but an artistic collage of images and music, a feast not only for the eyes and ears, but the soul.
Under the Volcano (2021)
This documentary, available to rent across most major streaming services, is a story you have most likely never heard before. It’s not about a band or a concert, but a studio. In the 1980s, at the foot of an active volcano in the Caribbean, Beatles producer George Martin built a recording studio named AIR Studios Montserrat. It was the most famous studio of its time, with over 70 albums recorded there in just a decade, from acts such as The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Jimmy Buffett, Elton John, The Police and Dire Straits. As quickly as the studio rose, however, it just as quickly came to an end, when 90 percent of it was destroyed during Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Many of the big names who recorded at the studio come back here to reminisce about the greatness of Martin, the studio and the music made. This is not a documentary about a fall, but a celebration of a great musical era and the best kind of nostalgia.
Source: Collider
James Gunn confirmó que tipo de música se utilizará en Guardianes de la Galaxia Vol. 3, zanjando algunos rumores aparecidos en la red El director James Gunn ya está listo para ponerse manos a la obra en Guardianes de la Galaxia Vol. 3, ahora que ha terminado de momento con sus compromisos con DC Comics, decimos de momento porque después del increíble éxito cosechado en Peacemaker, Warner Bros. ya […]
