The 25 Best Music Documentaries Of The 21st Century So Far

5. “DiG!” (2004)
Taking a novel approach to the well-worn territory of the band documentary by following two bands whose philosophies were diametrically opposed despite shared DNA, Ondi Timoner‘s “DiG!” juxtaposes the idea of a strong work ethic with the seductive myth of effortless but erratic creative genius. Both new wave-ish rockers The Dandy Warhols and neo-psychedelic garage-folkers The Brian Jonestown Massacre seemed on the verge of a greatness that retrospectively never really came, but if the years since “DiG!” have shown that neither spawned a particularly durable musical legacy, they also prove what an ephemeral thing it is that both are chasing. A de facto “Greatest Hits” for both bands —one run by a narcissistic yet charismatic pretty boy (Courtney Taylor-Taylor), the other by a raving, self-destructive genius/asshole (Anton Newcombe)— the film is a witty, sometimes savage portrait of the thin line between friendship and all-out artistic rivalry.

4. “Anvil! The Story Of Anvil” (2009)
The “real-life ‘Spinal Tap’!” tagline that tended to accompany Sacha Gervasi‘s deeply affectionate portrait of under-appreciated and underachieving Canadian heavy metal icons Anvil is apt enough, but only tells half the story of the film, which achieves a kind of hard-won, melancholic wisdom that Nigel Tufnel et al never managed. A band that managed to miss the boat on the late ’80s thrash scene that their bone-crunching sound helped spawn (Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, etc. all give effusive testimonials), this insider’s eye portrait (Gervasi was a teenage Anvil roadie) will make you pump devil horns, cringe with embarrassment and laugh and weep in celebration. But the uplift comes not so much from crunching power chords or headbanging riffs, but from the theme that gradually emerges about the nobility of perseverance in the face of opposition or indifference, and the triumphal power of brotherhood —which ultimately becomes as rousing a chorus as any stadium anthem.

3. “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” (2002)
Whether you regard the Wilco album “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” as the dawn of a new period for an internationally recognized band or the dramatic swan song for the truest incarnation of that band, documentarian and photographer Sam Jones was on hand to capture the often excruciating, often beautiful birthing pains of an undeniably important musical document. Shot in black and white and in a quieter style than many music documentaries affect, Jones’ unobtrusive approach somehow makes the drama of the album’s gestation sing out even more. And what drama! With their recording company balking at the album’s uncommerciality, key members Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett falling out, Tweedy’s recurrent migraines and a pressure-cooker atmosphere that sums up the terror of being at a make-or-break moment for commercial success but also for artistic fulfilment, ‘Break Your Heart’ is a compelling portrait of a craven and fickle music industry and of a band in tumult.

2. “Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest” (2011)
One of the most unsparing yet deeply felt films on this list, Michael Rapaport‘s portrait of seminal hip-hop band A Tribe Called Quest, its joyous rise and subsequent death-by-a-thousand-cuts implosion is maybe the literal definition of “that which nourishes you also kills you.” Minutely tracing the evolution of the band’s sound, which is jazzier and more playful than the angrier vibe of contemporaries like NWA and Public Enemy, and then mercilessly deep-diving on just how the friendships that bound the founding members together started to fray, the doc shows just how much their contrasting personalities contributed to the layered, evergreen freshness of their approach, and also how they ultimately caused the band’s acrimonious dissolution. From early greatness to later disappointing albums and on to a disastrous reunion, Rapaport nonetheless ends his energetic film on a redemptive note, so this totally absorbing portrait of kinship and estrangement, collaboration and compromise also suggests that where there’s (beats, rhymes &) life, there’s hope.

1. “No Direction Home: Bob Dylan” (2005) 
Todd Haynes‘ “I’m Not There” creatively explained to civilians (i.e. non-Dylan-heads) how elusive and chameleon-esque Bob Dylan is as a person and artist, and while Dylan has done many interviews since the early 1960s, Martin Scorsese coaxing the legend to not only participate in a documentary about himself but to openly reflect on his past is a major achievement that musicologists the world round are still grateful for. An intriguing and illuminating look into the period of Dylan’s arrival in New York in January 1961 all the way through to his “retirement” from touring following his famous motorcycle accident in July 1966, ‘No Direction’ will engross even the most skeptical. Ultimately, as much as Mr. Zimmerman reveals (and of course contradicts from past interviews), the documentary fittingly peels back layers while declining to solve the alluring enigma that is one of the 20th century’s great artists.

Honorable Mentions: Narrowly missing a top 25 placement were a couple of docs on seminal punk bands in “End Of The Century: The Story Of The Ramones” and “MC5: A True Testimonial,” while the Beastie Boys‘ “crowdsourced” concert doc “Awesome, I Fucking Shot That” is a fun, lively concept that has since had a little of its ad hoc, shaky amateur cam inventiveness dulled by the prevalence these days of cameraphone footage of everything. “Mistaken For Strangers” is a mischievous and meta portrait of The National that is as much family portrait as music doc, while “Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage” is essential for the Canadian prog-rockers’ fans and kind of blast even for their detractors. Shane Meadows “Stone Roses: Made of Stone” suffers a little from the director’s unabashed hero worship of the subjects, but it’s still a pretty infectious sentiment; “Muscle Shoals” is a must-see for those with even a passing interest in rock ‘n’ roll history; and “Young @ Heart” is definitely one of the most uplifting and all-out joyful of this frequently heart-swelling genre. There are many more of course, and if in contrast to that last film’s moral of music fostering togetherness, you wish to rip our selection apart, hit a high C in the comments below.

—written by Jessica Kiang, Oliver Lyttleton, Kevin Jagermauth, Rodrigo Perez and Katie Walsh