BETTER THAN SOMETHING: JAY REATARD
Better Than Something: Jay Reatard
Alex Hammond & Ian Markiewicz, 2012
Catalog No.: FTF-035
Length: 91minutes
For Jimmy Lee Lindsay, known to his fans and detractors as Jay Reatard, life was a race against time. After growing up fast among Memphis crack addicts, he managed to blaze a path through the rough-and-tumble underground rock scene of the early aughts, releasing over 100 singles, EPs and full-length records in fourteen years. Then on January 13, 2010, not yet 30, he died.
With their feature documentary Better Than Something, filmmakers Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz let Jay tell his own story: a poverty-stricken childhood, teen years spent as a two-fisted tunesmith battling fans and band mates alike, and a short-lived adulthood of focused and relentless productivity.
Jay said "I just try to make as much as I can with the time that I have." By any measure, that is exactly what he did. Better Than Something is both a testament to Jay Reatard's indisputable legacy and a tribute to his vital, thrilling, and all-too-brief life.
Music by: Jay Reatard, Lost Sounds, Destruction Unit, Reatards and Oblivians
Featuring: Jimmy Lee Lindsay, King Louie Bankston, Scott Bomar, Chad Booth, Alix Brown, Shawn Foree, Eric "Oblivian" Friedl, Larry Hardy, Zach Ives, Andria Lisle, Jeffrey Novak, Stephen Pope, Ryan "Elvis Wong" Rousseau, Adam Shore, Alicja Trout, Michael Venutolo-Mantovani and Sherman Willmott
PURCHASE
WATCH THE FILM
PRESS
"Does a remarkable job of capturing Reatard's complicated, conflicted, and often prickly persona."
-Mike Rubin, Spin
"Remarkably candid and eerily prescient."
-Eddie Cockrell, Variety
"Riveting, sad, and inspiring, Better Than Something is the best rock documentary of 2011."
-Steven Hyden, AV Club
"Like the longhair with the foghorn falsetto it's titled after, this unfussy rock-doc profile is shaggy, sophisticated, and more than a little sad."
-Mark Holcomb, The Village Voice
"If you care even one iota about punk rock, you should probably see this film."
-Patrick Rodgers, Nashville Scene
"A fitting final movement to the requiem of Jay Reatard."
-Ryan McNeil, The Matinee
"A sad, exhilarating, and ultimately inspiring documentary about a complicated young man whose life ended just as he appeared to be overcoming his demons."
-IFC.com