DIG!: Last year’s winner of the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the Sundance film festival is the capturing of 2 bands in the late 90’s, The Dandy Warhols & The Brian Jonestown Massacre. The bands are negative images of 1 another. They are friends & rivals. The frontmen, Courtney Taylor of the Dandies & Anton Newcombe of the Joneses, share mutual respect & animosity for 1 another.

Director Ondi Timoner spent 7 years filming both bands. In that time, The Dandy Warhols & The Brian Jonestown Massacre have gone in distinctly separate directions. The Dandies signed with Capitol Records & faced opposition with the label when their album didn’t sell as well as projected. The joneses signed with indie label TVT & pulled their version of The Great Rock & Roll Swindle which only reaped the rewards of Newcombe having home studio equipment bought for him so he could record on his own. Whereas only 1 Dandy left the group in the time this film was made, Jonestown went through numerous lineup changes with members quitting & rejoining often.

The feud between both bands seems to baffle the Dandies as the Joneses perpetuate the 1 sided hostilities. But while Taylor’s band reflects on how they’re probably the most well adjusted band in America, Newcomb's band sinks to the bottom of a well of drugs & volatility. Newcombe, a talented multi-instrumentalist, seems bent on simultaneous perfection & career sabotage. Shambolic tours & heroin addiction followed. While Newcombe, now clean, condemns the film, claiming that he’s misrepresented, the camera doesn’t lie. It shows a talented man in the grips of a terrible disease shouting openly, “Let me entertain you!”

ONG BAK- THAI WARRIOR: The advertisements for this film reveal that this movie had no computer effects, no stunt doubles & no wirework. That said, the fight scenes in Ong Bak are spectacular. Tommy Jaa, on skill alone, is set to be a martial arts star on the level of Bruce Lee & Jet Li. But Jaa seems to lack Bruce Lee’s personality & screen presence.

I say that Jaa appears to lack personality because it may just be the thin plotline in Ong Bak that holds him back. Tommy Jaa plays Ting, a young man from a small village in Thailand where their Buddhist statue was decapitated by a Bangkok thug. Ting offers to go to Bangkok to get the head back (Yeah, I know it’s thin). There through circumstances beyond his control, he’s forced to use his mui thai skills that he learned as a monk to kick a ton of ass.

What Ong Bak lacks in story it makes up for in action that looks outstanding &, most importantly, very painful.

R

Rick's Rants Archive
Email Rick