Beastie Boys Story is a 2020 American live documentary film, directed, produced, and written by Spike Jonze, alongside Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz. It was filmed at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, New York and adapted from Beastie Boys Book, a memoir of the Beastie Boys. Jonze reunited with Diamond and Horovitz for the project after having directed several music videos for them in the past, including "Sabotage" in 1994.
It was scheduled to be released in a limited cinema release on April 3, 2020, followed by digital streaming on April 24, 2020, by Apple TV . The limited cinema release was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cast
- Michael Diamond as himself
- Adam Horovitz as himself
- Adam Yauch as himself (archival content)
- Bill Hader as Crazy Shit Voice
- Michael K. Williams as Bob Dylan
- Ben Stiller, David Cross and Steve Buscemi as Audience Members
Release
Beastie Boys Story was scheduled to have its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 16, 2020, but the festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was also scheduled to be released in a limited cinema release on April 3, 2020, in selected IMAX cinemas, but it was pulled from the schedule due to cinema closures that started in mid March because of the pandemic restrictions. Digital streaming was made available on Apple TV on April 24, 2020.
Reception
Critical reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 94% based on 84 reviews. The website's critical consensus, which is a reference to the 1986 Beastie Boys song "Paul Revere," reads, "Here's a Beastie Boys Story they had to tell, about three bad brothers you know so well. It started way back in history -- and for new or old fans, it's a must-see." It has a score of 75 out of 100 on Metacritic, a site that aggregates a normalized rating, indicating "generally positive reviews".
Erik Adams of The A.V. Club gave the film a C and criticized it for poor pacing and lacking fun. His review concludes: "There's not a lot of new insights or Criterion Collection-worthy film-making on offer, but for fans, the documentary will be a reminder of why they got into Ad-Rock, MCA, and Mike D in the first place. It's all there in the outtakes: The Beastie Boys story is simply too big, too strange, too unwieldy for Beastie Boys Story to contain it."
Accolades
References
External links
- Beastie Boys Story on Apple TV
- Beastie Boys Story at IMDb
