Beastie Boys Story [is] appealing even to rap novices, offering a rare opportunity for two artists to track their own creative, personal, and moral evolution.

"'What would Yauch do?' is always on our minds," Ad-Rock and Mike D admit, and that's about when I started tearing up. And stayed weepy throughout!

It's all pretty straightforward. But Diamond and Horowitz are great storytellers - no surprise there - and Jonze adds video clips and photos on the giant screen behind them (and makes the occasional mistake, played for laughs).

The ellipses in the narrative are frustrating. This may be the Beastie Boys, according to the Beastie Boys, but that means the most fascinating, complex and contradictory parts of their story end up being ignored.