Better than Something: Jay Reatard Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Better than Something: Jay Reatard Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown January 9, 2025

Factory 25, a Brooklyn-based independent film distribution company, was founded in 2009 by Matt Grady. Factory 25 is a home for conceptually provocative narratives and documentaries. Its mission is to deliver specialized film and music titles like 'Better than Something: Jay Reatard' in an aesthetically captivating way while exposing the indie world to under-the-radar films, music and other curiosities in various manners and formats.

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. The documentary serves as both a testament to his legacy and a tribute to his vital, all-too-brief life.

Lindsay's fate pulses beneath Better than Something from start to finish. There's a sense of palpable tragedy the filmmakers grapple with early and often that lends the film its power and resonance. I knew nothing of Lindsay prior to popping the disc in my Blu-ray player but was almost immediately taken with the duality of his Jay Reatard persona; the distortion-fueled enthusiasm of his garage-rock shows; to say nothing of the sadness that permeates stories his upbringing -- it's all over his face and deep in his eyes whenever he discusses his childhood -- compared to the electricity that transforms him into something of a live wire on stage. The gig portions of the film were shot largely in 2009, though the documentary is mostly comprised of footage from his youth and interviews recorded with friends, fans and family long after his passing. It's a smartly edited piece too, telling two stories at once: the rise of a young talent against all odds and the untimely parting of a man who had cheated death for decades. It's a somber set of tales, but one that allows those being interviewed to share their awe through reflection and their admiration through the music that remains his legacy. Better than Something is a fitting tribute to a shredder you've probably never heard of, unless you're an extremely niche underground rock aficionado. But it led me to Lindsay's music, so why can't it do the same for you?

Better than Something: Jay Reatard Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Like Lindsay's shows, much of Better than Something is a messy but gripping, fly-by-night production comprised of tons of archive footage, low-fi recordings and barely adequate interview segments. But that's all part of the 1080p/AVC-encoded presentation's charm. It's next to impossible to determine if there are any serious encoding issues as so much of the video is peppered with artifacts, blocking and other visual anomalies. I'd venture most, if not all, trace solely to the source, but it's still worth nothing. Otherwise, colors are decently reproduced and contrasted, black levels are deep, and solid saturation delivers a series of lifelike skin tones. Detail is all over the place -- no surprise there -- and there's not much else to comment on. If you're coming to an underground rock documentary expecting flashy, polished visuals, you've come to the wrong place.

Better than Something: Jay Reatard Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Better than Something features a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mix that handles its sound design without incident. As is the case in the video presentation, the audio is deceptively sloppy, utilizing old recordings next to moments of CD-quality music to convey the breadth of Lindsay's career and the energy of his shows. It's hard to knock old camcorder footage audio for not being up to snuff when it couldn't possibly be anything more than it is. But most of the track fares quite well. There's various amounts of air hiss and what not during interviews, but voices are clear and intelligible at all times. It's just too bad that there isn't LFE support and lossless audio boosting the music to its full potential.

Better than Something: Jay Reatard Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray release of Better than Something includes 22-minutes of deleted scenes (in HD) and the film's trailer.

Better than Something: Jay Reatard Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Better than Something: Jay Reatard is a quality doc that tells a heartbreaking story of yet another young musician taken from us too soon. A homegrown talent and underground rock demigod, Jimmy Lee Lindsay had that patented "it" factor. It's tragic that his only legacy is the music he had time to produce before his passing. The Blu-ray release of the film is pretty hit or miss, but that shouldn't come as a surprise considering how much of the lo-fi footage matches the tone of Lindsay's songs and shows. Recommended.