Video maker Ondi Timoner spent seven years tracking two rival 60s-retro guitar bands from San Francisco, the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre, as mutual admiration curdled into a personal feud between their respective leaders, Courtney Taylor and Anton Newcombe. Apparently the conflict was never much more than a publicity stunt, but the contrast between the men’s career trajectories is illuminating: the Warhols, a relatively genial unit, played the industry game and became festival favorites in Europe, while the BJM, a showcase for Newcombe’s feverish creativity and self-destructiveness, continues to slug it out on the club circuit (the band plays this Saturday at Bottom Lounge). The video is narrated by Taylor, who magnanimously presents Newcombe as a Byronic hero, but ultimately proves that the pursuit of success and the pursuit of cool can be equally pointless. 110 min. Landmark’s Century Centre.
