Beastie Boys Story
Beastie Boys Story is a 2020 American live documentary film, directed, produced, and written by Spike Jonze, alongside Michael Diamond, 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 directing several music videos including "Sabotage" in 1994.[2]
Beastie Boys Story | |
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Directed by | Spike Jonze |
Produced by |
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Written by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Autumn Durald |
Edited by |
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Production companies |
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Distributed by | Apple TV+ |
Release date |
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Running time | 120 minutes[1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
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
- Adam Yauch as himself
- Michael Diamond as himself
- Adam Horovitz as himself
- Bill Hader as Crazy Shit Voice
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.[3][4] 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.[5] Digital streaming was made available on Apple TV+ on April 24, 2020.[6]
Critical reception
The film received generally positive reviews, getting an approval rating of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes[7] and a score of 75 out of 100 on Metacritic, a site that aggregates a normalized rating, indicating "generally positive reviews".
However, 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."[8]
Awards and nominations
Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
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Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special | Jason Baum, Amanda Adelson, Spike Jonze, Mike Diamond, Adam Horovitz, Dechen Wangdu-Yauch and John Silva | Nominated | [9] | |
Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming | Jeff Buchanan and Zoe Schack | Nominated | |||
Outstanding Sound Editing for a Nonfiction or Reality Program (Single or Multi-Camera) | Martyn Zub, Paul Aulicino and Pernell Salinas | Nominated | |||
Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Nonfiction or Reality Program (Single or Multi-Camera) | William Tzouris, Jacob Feinberg and Martyn Zub | Nominated | |||
Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming | Mike Diamond, Adam Horovitz and Spike Jonze | Nominated | |||
Grammy Awards | Best Music Film | Beastie Boys Story – Beastie Boys Spike Jonze (video director) Amanda Adelson, Jason Baum and Spike Jonze (video producers) |
Pending | [10] |
References
- "The Beastie Boys Story". South by Southwest. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
- "Beastie Boys Story review – Spike Jonze and the boys are back in town". the Guardian. 2020-04-20. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
- Ray-Ramos, Dino (January 15, 2020). "SXSW Sets Judd Apatow's 'The King Of Staten Island' As Opening-Night Film, Unveils Features And Episodics Lineups". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
- Spangler, Todd (March 4, 2020). "Apple Pulls Out of SXSW 2020 Over Coronavirus Concerns". Variety. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
- "THE 'BEASTIE BOYS STORY' IMAX® THEATRICAL RELEASE HAS BEEN POSTPONED". IMAX. March 17, 2020. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
- Vlessing, Etan (January 15, 2020). "Spike Jonze's 'Beastie Boys Story' Lands at Apple TV+". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
- Beastie Boys Story (2020), retrieved 2020-05-09
- Adams, Erik (April 24, 2020). "Beastie Boys Story Is No Sure Shot". The A.V. Club. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
- "Beastie Boys Story". Emmys.com. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
- William, Chris. "Grammy Awards Nominations 2021: The Complete List". Variety. Retrieved 24 November 2020.