SPIKE JONZE Talks ‘BEASTIE BOYS STORY,' NOSTALGIA and PLANS

The acclaimed director of ‘Her,’ ‘Being John Malkovich’ and longtime collaborator with legendary hip-hop group Beastie Boys created a ‘live documentary’ film with Mike D and AdRock

- ANURAG TAGAT

WHEN IT comes to telling the story of a group as seminal as Beastie Boys, a regular documentary format just won’t do. That’s obviously something that the group’s surviving members – Mike Diamond aka Mike D and Adam Horovitz aka Ad-Rock – and filmmaker Spike Jonze knew all too well. Enter Beastie Boys Story, a “live documentary” that premiered on Apple TV+ on April 24th and takes from their 2018 memoir Beastie Boys Book and pushes it into a space where few music documentaries have gone before.

Jonze, best known for his work with the Beasties on music videos such as “Sure Shot” and “Sabotage,” has brought his own unconventional storytelling (seen in films such as Her, Where the Wild Things Are and Being John Malkovich) and a longstanding friendship into the mix. There’s history told through animation, self-referential jokes, archival interviews with the group’s late co-founder Adam Yauch aka MCA, plus Mike D and Ad-Rock taking the crowd through it all almost like it was a TED Talk.

In an email interview with Rolling Stone India, Jonze speaks about bringing the visual piece to life, artists he wish he could work with and the fact that premiere plans for Beastie Boys Story were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.