Movie Review

Beastie Boys Story relives rap group's history in unique style

For many people who grew up in the 1980s and ‘90s, the Beastie Boys had as much influence on the music world as any other superstars. Owing to their unique style and chosen genre, they weren’t consistent hitmakers, but when they delivered something great, it was as memorable as any other song out there.

Beastie Boys Story, the new documentary by director Spike Jonze on Apple TV+, is predictably unlike any other music documentary you’ll ever see. There are no talking heads giving their opinions on the band, coupled with clips of the band through the years. Instead, band members Mike “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad Rock” Horovitz are shown telling the Beastie Boys’ story themselves live on stage over the course of several nights at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn.

Yes, they show clips of themselves and others over the course of their 30+ year career, but they’re delivered in a style that’s designed to maximize entertainment rather than just recite the facts. Hearing the story straight from the surviving band members’ mouths — founding member Adam “MCA” Yauch died of cancer in 2012 — instead of in a traditional documentary style makes the film immeasurably more impactful.

Diamond and Horovitz are relatively buttoned down in their presentations, but that’s to be expected of two men who are now in their mid-50s. It’s also a great juxtaposition to their admittedly immature younger selves, and the film is full of them calling out themselves and Yauch for being doofuses or disrespectful during their early years.

One’s reaction to the film will likely lie in how invested he or she is in the band itself. For hardcore fans, there likely aren’t any huge revelations. For those, like me, who have always enjoyed the band’s music but never became superfans, there are multiple tidbits that are, if not shocking, hugely interesting.

That includes how the band grew to despise their most famous album, License to Ill, with joke songs like “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)” and “Girls” taking on a life of their own when the band became successful. Or how Yauch was the driving force of the band, leading them in directions that both defined their uniqueness and maintained their popularity through the years.

Given that Diamond, Horovitz, and Jonze are the ones putting on the show that was turned into the movie, there is no “other side of the story.” So when they detail how Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin, the founders of the Def Jam record label, cheated them out of royalties for License to Ill, it is told without any perspective from Simmons or Rubin. That information would be valuable to know, but wouldn’t necessarily fit in a film like this.

In the end, it’s the reliving of the songs and how they were created that carry the day. “Fight for Your Right,” “No Sleep till Brooklyn,” “So What’cha Want,” “Sabotage,” “Intergalactic,” and more remain as invigorating as when they were first released, even if we only get to hear snippets of most of the songs.

Fans like the ones who packed the Kings Theatre will love Beastie Boys Story the most, but the personalities of Diamond and Horovitz and stories they tell are enough to draw in even non-fans. It might have unimaginable 34 years ago, but the Beastie Boys are elder music statesmen worthy of veneration in a great documentary like this.

---

Beastie Boys Story premieres on Apple TV+ on April 24.

Adam Horovitz and Mike Diamond in Beastie Boys Story.

Adam Horovitz and Mike Diamond in Beastie Boys Story

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+

Adam Horovitz and Mike Diamond in Beastie Boys Story.

Movie Review

Daniel Craig searches for elusive new bond in audacious film Queer

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

---

Queer is now playing in theaters.

Loading...