DiG!

The thing about rockumentaries is that they tend to detail the lives of people who think they’re much more important than they really could ever hope to be. That’s what was so great about Spinal Tap: It made the ridiculousness of rock and roll pretense seem not only funny, but also stupid. DiG! kind of does the same thing, with Brian Jonestown Massacre leader Anton Newcombe doing a parody of the self-absorbed, tortured artist of genuineness. Meanwhile, across the fence, his arch-rival/secret love interest Courtney Taylor (also known as Courtney Taylor-Taylor, because he’s so proud of himself he had to name himself twice), leader of the prettier and more commercially successful Dandy Warhols, does his own self-parody of the self-loving pop idol. DiG! chronicles the sort of pathetic and funny and musically interesting lives of these two jerkwards, who wind up hating each other in the way that people who wish they were each other, or were inside of each other, often do. It’s fun, but maybe not fun for its whole running time. Still, it’s an excellent object lesson on why rock is not now, nor will it ever be, cool.