It’s a glorious moment for music at the movies: Dave Chappelle’s Block Party revels in the spirit of funky community, while this week’s heartbreaking The Devil and Daniel Johnston feels like a noble act of indie reclamation. Forming a trifecta is this endearingly sloppy document of the Beastie Boys’ 2004 MSG homecoming, largely shot on Hi8 by 50 superfans in the audience. That means technically, it looks like ass. But the hot video sizzle, bleared lights, bobbing heads and impish band antics (often shot from what feels like miles away) create as sweaty an experience of an arena show as you’re likely to see. Beats rumble cavernously in a superb mix, nicely offsetting the bootleg feel.
Beastieheads already know this is required viewing, but conceptually, the video has comic gems for even nonfans. (The pseudonymous director is the band’s gruff-voiced Adam Yauch, a.k.a. MCA, responsible for some of their more stoopid videos.) Footage of a young woman lost in a hip-swiveling groove is spliced with a band member doing the same move, then fetishized against a romantic palm-tree backdrop, making a joke of the whole collaboration. One amateur camera operator rushes to the bathroom midtrack, capturing that panicky, I’m-going-to-miss-something moment. Best is a shot that lasts maybe three seconds: homeboy Ben Stiller rapping along to some of the band’s more esoteric lyrics. As a picture of NYC pride, blurred and bumptious, it’s 40 times better than a Rangers game. (Opens Fri; Regal Union Square 14.)—Joshua Rothkopf