BETTER THAN SOMETHING: JAY REATARD As fine a tribute to Reatard as one could hope for.

IN 2009, filmmakers Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz released Waiting for Something, a 20-minute documentary about Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr.—better known as Jay Reatard. Interviewing the punk-garage musician at home in Memphis, Tennessee, the filmmakers exposed Reatard more intimately than he had been in any other forum, revealing a prolific, gifted, troubled artist on the verge of a commercial breakthrough.


What Hammond and Markiewicz have done in Better Than Something is dig deeper with their existing interview footage of Reatard, supplanting it with live performances and interviews with family and friends. They don't attempt to explain Reatard's death, but neither do they gloss over his problems with alcohol and crack abuse. The result is a devastatingly good documentary that's as fine a tribute to Reatard as one could hope for—a tasteful, comprehensive, human look at a guy who had trouble connecting with other people but no problems communicating through music. It's a must-see for anyone who's a Jay Reatard fan; if you're not one, you will be after watching Better Than Something.