Captain Beefheart

This budget documentary is guilty of making every bad mistake a rock documentary can: it’s comprised almost entirely of filmed interviews with rock historians and aged Magic Band members romanticising or belittling the past, the editing is mind-numbingly boring, cheesy effects abound as still photos float by — sometimes the same one twice in a matter of minutes — and the British narrator recites common knowledge with tempestuous grandeur. When they actually do bust out some wicked footage (like a video for Beefheart’s debut single, "Diddy Wah Diddy”), it’s truncated after one verse to let the old farts grow more senile before our eyes. (MVD)