Some great stuff here, and even more to check out.
My most recent pick is Everybody’s Everything - the doc about Lil Peep - a kid who could have been on track to be his generation’s Cobain, but tragically OD’d at 21. The amount of bangers he left behind is pretty incredible given that tbh, but let me talk about the doc itself…
Because he’s so young, the footage of his come up is utterly first rate. We open on an interview with him literally just a few months into making music, follow him to the very edge of super stardom and then crash hard with his death.
But there’s something special about this. It was exec produced by Terrence Mallick, of Tree of Life fame, and has some of that semi-impressionistic feel in a sense. Also Peep (real name Gustav) came from this socialist family, his grandfather being a revolutionary writer, and we hear his letters to Gustav interspersed throughout. Of course, that upbringing was a huge influence on his worldview - as, sadly, was the (what is heavily implied to be) horrific abuse he suffered at the hands of his father as a kid (dad declined to be interviewed).
The real stand out of this doc is the scene, though. I had no idea that the weird, white-boy-with-face-tat mumble rap thing was at least as closely aligned to punk as it is to hip hop, and I loved all these thoughtful, sweet kids with gnarly tats talking emotionally about their friend who was this crazy raw talent, and giving us a glimpse into their world. It reminded me of shitty great gigs as a kid, being in a band, following the dream, etc.
There’s something so quintessentially youthful about this doc, I’ve watched it three times now and still keep thinking about it, and I went in as absolutely not a fan.
Just fascinating to see the rocket fuelled rise of a raw talent, the crazy scene he came from, how beloved he was already, and the hole he left behind. On Netflix I think, you’ll like it: