Review: Beastie Boys Story (2020)

Beastie Boys Story, the concert show documentary by Spike Jonze isn’t quite what I expected from either the director or band members, but it’s still a fascinating story told with a great deal of love and self-reflection. Shot over three nights at the Kings Theater in Brooklyn, New York, Beastie Boys Story combines the on-stage narration and banter of Michael Louis Diamond a.k.a. Mike D and Adam Horovitz a.k.a. Ad-Rock with archival footage to tell the story of the Beastie Boys, one of the oddest and most fascinating bands in the history of either rock or hip-hop. The glaring absence of Adam Yauch a.k.a. MCA, who died of cancer in 2012 at the age of 47, offers the show its elegiac and reflective tone, and the film functions as much as a loving tribute of three friends (if we include director Spike Jonze who has worked with the Beasties since the early 90s) to their lost companion, as a straight forward recounting of the band’s history.

Divided into chapters, appropriately, as the concert film essentially adapts the Beastie Boys Book released in 2018, the film proceeds chronologically, beginning with the group of friends as young punk kids in early-80s New York, and recounting their time with Rick Rubin, then an NYU student and budding hip-hop producer, and Def Jam’s Russell Simmons in crafting the landmark party-rock-rap album Licensed To Ill and its hit single, “Fight For Your Right.”

These early stories fascinate for the way that the idea of these young kids—and they really were kids—worked their way into the emerging hip-hop scene in New York, essentially left to their own devices to wander the streets and hang out in their “clubhouses” to make music and goof off. I was struck how such a thing could probably never happen today, given the changes in both the music scene and how the freedom children and teens are granted to explore on their own has drastically changed. The Beasties’ curiosity about the world and good sense of humour allowed them, as young white kids, to nonetheless enter into the primarily black hip-hop music scene and make an impact.

At the same time, these early chapters show the foolishness and cruelty of young men, as they abandon their founding member, female friend Kate Schellenbach, and as their stardom rises, the jokey party-rock antics of “Fight For Your Right” become less a joke and more their real persona. While it’s fondly remembered by many today, both Horovitz and Mike D reflect back on how that persona almost destroyed them as a band and as people. But the film then pivots to how Yauch’s desire to explore and push what they could be as a band brought them back together and how they became not just a novelty act, but real musicians and artists and grew as people.

Their follow up album to Licensed To Ill, Paul’s Boutique is widely remembered as a landmark, and one of the Beastie Boys’ best albums. But for those of us who were too young to remember it in the moment, the film reminds us that it was a failure upon its release. The band’s effort to make something more earnest, more exploratory, and artistic was a sales bomb, compared with the earlier album. But it led to more and more creativity, pushing forward to the pair of albums, Check Your Head and Ill Communication, that showcased the groups strength to create infectious hooks, unique lyrical delivery, and develop their visual identity in landmark music videos like “Sabotage” (directed by this film's director, Spike Jonze). 

The film then pivots to Yauch’s explorations into Eastern spirituality and his devotion to the cause of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan exiles. I loved the detail of Yauch’s explanation that part of what attracted him to the Dalai Lama was his sense of humour. The transformation from obnoxious brats to passionate advocates for peace is one of the most fascinating parts of the Beastie Boys journey, and both Mike D and Ad-Rock attribute a lot of the growth of the band, and of themselves personally, to Yauch’s spirit of adventure and caring. In one of the film’s best moments, Horovitz reflects on how he was once interrogated by a journalist who couldn’t square the thoughtful lyrics and pro-woman message of one of their later songs with the jokey misogyny of “Girls” from their first album. Were the Beastie Boys hypocrites? Horovitz’s response is the one thing that sticks with me, and is very clearly illustrated by the film: “I’d rather be a hypocrite than the same person forever.” It’s a mantra that many could take some lessons from today, and shows a mature and nuanced view toward the journeys that life takes us on and the mistakes we make along the way.

The film spends some time on their 1998 album Hello Nasty, which they recall as being perhaps their most experimental and personal pinnacle. The band’s final two albums, the politically-minded post-9/11 ode to New York, To The 5 Boroughs and, what would be their final album, 2011’s Hot Sauce Committee (Pt. 2), are given little to no attention in the show, as it ends essentially with reflections on what would end up being their final live show in 2009 when Adam Yauch learned he had cancer, and ultimately, Yauch’s death in 2012. Without Yauch, there would be no Beastie Boys, and so the film becomes, structurally and in intention, a tribute to Yauch. 

I said at the beginning the film wasn’t quite what I expected. Part of this is that I didn’t realize it was a recorded stage show (complete with post-credit celebrity audience members showing up). Almost all of the narration is drawn from Mike D and Horovitz on stage, bantering and reflecting on their shared past. Jonze frequently cuts to archival footage—especially for anything involving Adam Yauch—which would have appeared on the screen behind the performances. While it’s nice to have direct narration from the subjects of the story rather than the usual documentary talking heads, it does give a fairly limited perspective on some parts of the band’s history.

My thwarted expectation is also that it’s less a fully comprehensive documentary on the band than a personal memoir, framed through the thoughtful reflections of Horovitz and Mike D. What this means is that their current frame of mind, as men in their early 50s reflecting back on a long career, shapes the attitude and approach of the film. But it means there are also a lot of gaps and moments that I’d like to know more about. Perhaps it's not so much a criticism as a testament to the strength of the story that I’d love to see a longer, more comprehensive documentary than just this two-hour stage show.

What I take away from Beastie Boys Story is a story of three friends, growing up together and evolving together and transforming from a novelty hip-hop act into one of the most infectiously joyous groups in music. I’d love to hear more about their early days with Def Jam and how they fit into the broader story of hip-hop and popular music more generally, but that’s not really what this story is. Beastie Boys as portrayed in this film are about humour, something they insist is key to their art, but also about sincerity and a joie de vivre. It reaffirmed my love of the band, and also made me happy to see people I admired who had grown and learned from life. Ultimately, it’s pretty inspiring stuff.

Beastie Boys Story (2020, USA)

7 out of 10

Directed by Spike Jonze; written by Adam Horovitz, Mike D, and Spike Jonze; starring Adam Horovitz, Mike D, and Adam Yauch.

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