Where to watch: You’ll have to track down a copy of this one…įilmed over seven years and cut for drama (“it’s a movie, not a documentary,” claimed The Dandy Warhols’ Courtney Taylor-Taylor), Ondi Timoner’s Dig! followed the differing fortunes and inter-personal rivalries of The Warhols and Anton Newcombe’s Brian Jonestown Massacre as major label opportunity knocked for the ‘90s Portland psych-pop scene. Come for the performances by rap legends and between-set monologues from one of America’s most celebrated comedians, stay for the existential wrestling Chappelle would walk away from the contract soon after filming.
MUSIC OBSCURITY RATING FREE
In which comic rocket Chappelle, struggling with the sort of guy a $50 million contract with Comedy Central makes you, decides to organise a free rap show in Brooklyn featuring Kanye West, Mos Def, The Fugees and Erykah Badu (among others), bussing in locals from his Ohio hometown. When the titular Cuban ensemble – put together in 1996 by Ry Cooder – arrived in New York for their first American performances, German director Wim Wenders was on hand to capture the event on film, explore the history of Cuban music and delve into the players’ experiences of crossing the political divide between Cuba and the US. So important because it personifies the word ‘WTF’. A must-watch in 2018 just to keep up with what the internet was pissing itself over, and every bit as hilarious three years on since it remains, unbelievably, not scripted by Steve Coogan. Where to watch: A physical copy? Surely, not…Īn accidental classic, thanks to Matt Goss’s timeless, and instantly viral philosophising on Rome, conkers, regal road sweepers and bulldogs drinking beer. It’s a cornucopia of historic moments, from Dylan baiting the press to pioneering the music video in the ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ cue card section.
The original fly-on-the-wall rock doc, DA Pennebaker’s document of Dylan’s infamous 1965 ‘Electric Judas’ tour caught the bleared bard at a pivotal watershed moment for folk and rock music, crossing over from protest folk favourite to mainstream rock rebel but blinded by the furore he caused simply by plugging in and letting rip. His case had more holes than a Crips’ car door, but Broomfield’s manner of pulling his threads together in a film largely about his attempts to make it made for compelling viewing. His verdict? Suge Knight dun it, in an elaborate plot of revenge, control and diversion, abetted by hit men hired from the LAPD.
Its Rotten Tomatoes critic consensus reads “Beychella forever”.įresh from his equally contentious Kurt & Courtney, director Nick Broomfield delivered a similarly investigative study of the tragic end of rap’s most famous beef. Hailed as amongst the greatest concert films (which are, of course, still music documentaries) ever on release, this onstage and behind-the-scenes document of Beyoncé’s dazzling set at Coachella 2018 marries the sheer spectacle of Beyoncé in full, eye-popping flow with incisive, intimate and politically charged offstage vignettes. Director RJ Cutler is welcomed into the Eilish family between 20, capturing as much of Billie’s unmanufactured, homespun authenticity as the blur of the pop world spinning around her. Not yet old enough to have lived out the traditional music documentary narrative arc – hardship, big break, sing for President, stomach pump – Eilish’s verité doc rather sets her monumental superstardom within a frame of domestic relatability. Albeit with some touching pathos instead of tiny Stonehenges.īillie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry (2021) And this tale of two 1980s heavy metal coulda-beens refusing to give up on their dreams in the face of half-empty bars, embarking on an ill-fated European tour, breaking up, reuniting and forging on to semi-glory certainly takes the past-their-prime metal journeyman story up to eleven. ‘The real-life Spinal Tap’, went the hype.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+ (to rent) Watching such a mercurial talent spiral into drink, drugs, bulimia and tragedy while a scandal-hungry media swarm greedily ogles the skidding car makes for a true slice of celluloid heartbreak.
MUSIC OBSCURITY RATING TV
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video and Virgin TV Goįrom stars-in-her-eyes childhood home movies to final onstage meltdowns, the volatile, demon-plagued life of Amy Winehouse is laid bare in Asif Kapadia’s Oscar-winning Amy. Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, YouTube (to rent)įilmed by Sydney Pollack in 1972 but gathering dust on the shelf until three months after her death in 2018, Aretha Franklin’s live recordings for her gospel album ‘Amazing Grace’ – shot over two nights in a church in LA – caught a heaven-sent voice at its most powerful and impassioned.
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