Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That!

Year: 2006

Grade: B+

Country: USA

Director: Hornblower

Review

SCREENED AT SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST FILM FESTIVAL

nathaniel hornblower (aka adam yauch or MCA) has a great visual mind. he’s demonstrated that in the past with videos like body movin’, alive, shadrach and so what’cha want, and he does it again with this concert film. it’s a film shot from 61 angles, including 50 cameras which were given to fans attending the madison square garden show. yauch takes the resulting footage and mixes it together to form a pretty great idea of what goes on during a typical beastie boys show. there are plenty of shots of the b-boys performing and fans (including ben stiller and wife) dancing, but it also includes some backstage footage and footage of the beasties preparing for the encore (which they perform on the upper level). it’s a great film, regardless of your feelings about the beastie boys, in part because it keeps things interesting by switching up the looks. it begins with a great fish eye lens shot of nyc and runs the gamut throughout the picture – from b&w footage to negatives to some of the weird color negatives employed on the so what’cha want video. yauch freezes the frame from time to time for effect, he also loops the video and has a little fractal segment involving a bass guitar which is pretty nifty. highlights include money mark’s keyboard antics, the rattling picture during paul revere and the board game t-shirts the band wears (electronic battleship-mmm, mah jong-mca, critter-mike d, scrabble-adrock, boggle-money mark), a fan’s bathroom break, and doug e. fresh’s appearance.

there was a q&a after the screening.

Watched in theater    Watched on TV