You're Gonna Miss Me: A Film About Roky Erickson

2007
7.6| 1h31m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 08 June 2007 Released
Producted By: Palm Pictures
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Documentary about rock pioneer Roky Erickson, detailing his rise as a psychedelic hero, his lengthy institutionalization, his descent into poverty and filth, and his brother's struggle with their religious mother to improve Roky's care.

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Director

Keven McAlester

Production Companies

Palm Pictures

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You're Gonna Miss Me: A Film About Roky Erickson Audience Reviews

Greenes Please don't spend money on this.
Console best movie i've ever seen.
Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
nomoons11 Right off you will start to make judgments on what Roky Erickson suffers from. The one thing this documentary does well is divide the possibilities into the story telling. You will be guessing yourself to the very end.I think it's pretty safe to say that Roky Erickson was probably the first rock star casualty of the 60's. He even beats Syd Barrett and Brian Jones of the Stones by a few years. This documentary does a fairly good job of depicting his life from start until the most recent point. Your job is to tell yourself...or make yourself believe what is his issue. For me it's a combination of all four possibilities I mention but one stands out from all others...just because of the time this story all starts.IMO...Roky Erickson had a seriously bad acid trip that did him in. Why do I believe this? Mainly because it was very common in it's day and the behavior he exhibits is classic. I'll mention 1 group that had 3 go awry with one bad acid trip...The original line-up of the Fleetwood Mac. Their 3 front members all have the same problems to this day. All of it started with some bad acid. Another case? Syd Barrett. His is a little more difficult to pin down but it's common knowledge of his acid use and his behavior?.Well...he seemed a lot like Roky Erickson does to me.Roky Erickson lived a pretty difficult/odd life. You gradually get to realize that his mother is the star of the family and she lets you know it in her own little odd way. The father was a drunk and he doesn't get much attention in this film but you know...he's an issue. After he trips bad on acid he gets stuck in a cruel mental institution for a few years that was not equipped to deal with is problem. They mention that the only reason he got put in there is because he kept escaping the institution he was in so the sheriff got fed up and put him in a maximum security facility. They complain and decide to tell you he didn't need to be in there for his crime...which was just possession of pot I believe. What was the sheriff suppose to do? Keep sticking him in the same facility so he could keep escaping? He did what most would have done...stuck him in a place he wouldn't get away from. Problem was, it was a horror story of a mental hospital.I got the impression towards the end that youngest of his brothers was only trying to help for his own benefit. This guy was a "new age" typa guy who had to see therapists to get himself back to a sense of peace and he wanted to help Roky in the same way. It was plain the Roky was fine the way he was and was content with his dull life but his brother kept his persistence up. His enemy he thinks is his mother who he says keeps Roky from taking his meds or won't allow him to. She's obviously and odd one but she's sane enough. This is a classic case of 1 side of the family against the other. In the end we see Roky progress after a year and the "new age" therapist asks Roky what he wants to do when he goes home. His answer, judging from the frown in his face, doesn't please his little brother. "I wanna go talk to my mother". I just got the impression that he was in it to help him but with intent of some kind of gain because of who his brother is.Good doc on an interesting subject. It's also good to see Roky still around. There needs to be more of these films to tell cautionary tales about these particular subjects. They're better than the evening news.
tillzen Where to begin ... Take a broken family with mental problems (self-medication), add a minor rock star, and Austin (weird) Texas Ta da! "Roky" Erickson is one of those 1960's legends who did not have the good fortune to die young, and leave a good looking corpse. Luckily walking corpses abound here from his mother (think outsider artist w. a screw loose), a brother who seems to have escaped the madness, only to regress frame by frame, and then with Roky himself who is a poster child for drugs in moderation. I gave this DVD 9 out of 10 because the EXTRA footage is the key. This is intense sad stuff, but as you see the footage from the 2 years AFTER this film was completed, a lot more questions, and answers emerge. This is NOT easy stuff, but in the end, I was profoundly moved by this work, and have yet to recover.
Jamesthejiveturkey Roky Erickson and his band, the 13th Floor Elevators were a 60's rock band that seemed on the cusp of great success. They achieved a small amount of fame and this was greatly due to the power of Roky Erickson's voice. (It's very easy to believe that Janis Joplin was greatly influenced by Erickson as the film contends.) As with many other bands of the era, the group experimented heavily with psychedelic drugs. When Roky combined rampant drug use along with a preexisting mental illness he began behaving much more erratically, and slowly began fading away from society."You're Gonna Miss Me.." attempts to fill in what has happened to Roky in the twenty or so years since he disappeared from the public eye as well as show his current status. As it turns out, Erickson has been living in Austin under the care of his mother who has made him virtually unavailable to any other members of his family or doctors to help him with his illness. Indeed, one of the first times we see Roky today he is enraptured with a Mr. Potato Head doll. A huge rift has developed within his family, as it appears that Erickson's mother is also in dire need of some psychiatry as well. The creators of "You're Gonna Miss Me" have certainly chosen an interesting subject, and generally present it well. They did a fine job of capturing Roky, his living conditions, and his relationship with his mother. They also managed to locate more than enough footage throughout the years to document Roky's unraveling.Despite the compelling material, there are a number of problems with the documentary. First, there is only passing attention paid to Erickson's father, brothers, or son. There was obviously much that had happened over the years between the family and Roky's mother that was not discussed during the documentary. I felt that those people had a lot to do with the story, but I was never allowed to really get to know them. There was even a remark made in passing during the film that Roky's father may have molested one or more of his sons, but for whatever reason the filmmakers chose not to investigate this further. The ending of the documentary left me wanting as well. There was a long period of time that Roky was in therapy and was taking medicine that the audience does not get to see. We jump from Roky being almost completely out of it to somewhat coherent months later. It would have been fascinating to see Erickson slowly reemerge. Although we get to see Roky pick up the guitar the guitar again, he clearly had a long way to go, and I'm sure the movie would have played better if the filmmakers had continued following Erickson for a while longer. Luckily the DVD bonus materials help achieve that sense of closure the film lacks.The 13th Floor Elevators still have many fans today (some of them famous musician tons in their own right), and Erickson's fall into the depths of mental illness is an interesting and tragic one. The viewer can't help but feel that if the right actions had been taken at any number of critical times in Erickson's life that he might have avoided a large number of his problems.
Jasmine Kosovic This is an incredible - and incredibly fu**ed up! - story, beautifully told. I had not heard of Roky Erickson before I saw this film. A friend invited me to a screening without much warning so I had no expectations. What I discovered was a film that's a tripped out ballad of family dysfunction on a level that is heartbreaking to bear. But it can be really funny too. It's tragic, comic, and mind blowing all at once - and in a weirdly quiet way. It's the kind of subject matter that could be handled in a way that's glib and wonky. But the filmmakers chose a different route, one that's elegant and thoughtful – be it in the downright hypnotic compositions of the 16mm cinematography (how did they swing that in a documentary?) or the quiet style of the editing (the kind that gives you space to think, to feel) - and it leaves a lasting impression. I saw it over a week ago and keep thinking about these incredible people. "You're Gonna Miss Me" is troubling, fascinating, captivating and hysterically funny. Do whatever you need to do to see this film; it is a true and singular find.