Seven years and 1,500 hours of footage is simply too much film for documentary editors to handle.
"DiG!" is an ambitious attempt to portray the highs and lows, the friendship and rivalry between two bands, The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre.
However, the overwhelming amount of footage forces director Ondi Timoner to focus on a single angle or risk being buried in the material.
Because of that, "DiG!" reeks of pure bias for 115 minutes.
Timoner obviously holds a negative opinion about Anton Newcombe, frontman for The Brian Jonestown Massacre.
He takes extra care to demonstrate Newcombe's self-destructive nature while music pundits gush pompous praise down the audience's throat, placing him on a pedestal. This adulation only serves to further slant the movie against him because of his perceived egomania.
As The Dandy Warhols reach moderate success in the United States and internationally after signing to Capitol Records, The Brian Jonestown Massacre slowly falls into the cracks, missing every opportunity to strike it big.
Most, if not all, of the failures are attributed to Newcombe's inability to function as a member of the band. He's shown canceling shows, getting into fights and ruining relationships with fellow band mates.
Granted, Newcombe seems to have a musical Christ complex, but the sharp contrast of praise with failure stings viciously, especially when said praise is superficial.
