New music documentaries rock the big screen at Tribeca | The Excerpt
On Sunday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: This year’s Tribeca Film Festival went all in on music, including documentaries on Billy Joel, Miley Cyrus and more. Paste BN National Music Reporter Melissa Ruggieri joins The Excerpt to share insights from some of this year's biggest debuts.
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Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Dana Taylor:
Hello and welcome to Paste BN's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Sunday, June 22nd, 2025. A slew of new music documentaries recently debuted this year's Tribeca Film Festival. The list of cultural icons and docs just released are coming soon is long from Billy Joel to Miley Cyrus to Pearl Jam's, Eddie Vedder. Beyond incredible sound, what are some of the stories captured in these docs and what will audiences see and hear as they follow documentary filmmakers and their quest to go behind the music. Here to share insights from some of the biggest music documentaries fans can seek out this summer is Paste BN's music reporter, Melissa Ruggieri. Thanks for joining me, Melissa.
Melissa Ruggieri:
Of course. Thank you for having me.
Dana Taylor:
Before we discuss Billy Joel's new music doc, what can you share with us regarding his recent health disclosures? How's he doing?
Melissa Ruggieri:
He seems to be doing okay. Howard Stern is a good friend of his, and he told his listeners about two weeks ago that he had dinner with Billy at home in May, and he said, "Look, he's got some issues. This disease that he has is affecting his balance mostly. But he said Billy wanted to pass along the message that he's not dying, that he's going to be able to recover from this." On Father's Day, Billy's wife posted a bunch of pictures of him on Instagram with the family, and he looks like he's had some health issues. He looks a little bit thinner, a little bit more drawn, but for the most part he looks like Billy Joel.
So the goal is for him to get back on stage someday. I mean, I honestly don't know if we're going to see him touring big stadiums as he has the past few years anymore, but I think he'll at least do an Elton John type of thing and maybe play a couple shows a year for charity or go back to Madison Square Garden or something. But I think we're probably looking at a good year from now before any of that's going to happen. But the good news is, is that it does not seem as if it's... It's not a terminal disease, it's just something that he's going to have to cope with and then see how it affects his piano playing and his performance skills in the future.
Dana Taylor:
Fans will get to experience great music in all of the documentaries we're going to discuss. Is Billy Joel's movie going to give us a mix of both the music and the man, meaning insights into his personal life?
Melissa Ruggieri:
Absolutely. So I only saw the first half of the documentary. It's all that they've screened for us at Tribeca because it is two and a half hours long. And it, and the second half, they'll both be on HBO in July and it's called, 'And So It Goes', which is the name of one of Billy's songs. And the song that he's often said he thinks it's the best song he's ever written, it's one of my favorites too, so I could understand that. But what's really fascinating about this first half is that we get so much insight into his first marriage to Elizabeth Weber was there at Tribeca, and she's not a name that you hear brought up very often. They started dating under interesting circumstances. Billy was living with her and her husband at the time, and then that turned into a romance for the two of them.
And she's really the muse though, behind so much of his work leading up to their split in the early eighties right before the 'Innocent Man' came out. But she's really the one. She took over as his manager, and you learn really about how much influence she had on his career. And she was being a female manager in the seventies when that was not really something that women were doing. Sharon Osbourne's really the only other one I can think of off the top of my head. But without her, the giant hit of Billy's career, 'Just the Way You Are' from the 'Stranger Album', probably would never have been released as a single. And in the documentary you really see what a turning point that was for his career musically up until that point.
But to your question, as far as the personal versus the music, we do learn a lot about Billy as a young man. He does talk about how he tried to take his life twice right after he and Elizabeth had broken up in the early seventies as well. And then just bouncing back from that and putting all of his angst into his music and how that came out in the 'Turnstiles' album and 'Glass Houses' and 'The Stranger' and everything else. So the second half of the documentary presumably will pick up right before 'An Innocent Man' came out in the early eighties and then lead up through his Madison Square Garden residency, which was a record-breaking thing for 10 years, and all of the stadium shows and everything else that he's done since then.
Dana Taylor:
Pearl Jam's, Eddie Vedder and his wife Jill Vedder, produced a documentary called 'Matter of Time.' It focuses on their philanthropic work. What do they share with Paste BN regarding this project?
Melissa Ruggieri:
Well, Eddie and his wife Jill, both did send us a lovely statement directly about this documentary. It's called Epidermolysis Bullosa, and it is a rare skin condition that causes blistering very, very easily. People easily blister, and it is a rare genetic condition. And Eddie and his wife have both been working with this cause for about a decade, and they both told us that it's really just been an honor and a privilege just to see how much resilience, it's mostly young people that it affects and sometimes it doesn't present itself until mid-childhood or teens, and just the resilience that these kids have shown in dealing with something that can be very painful. And also when you talk about a physical thing when you've got a kid in school, just the type of reactions that they're getting from the other kids and dealing with all that.
So there is a lot of hope is what Jill told us that hadn't existed before, and that the kids have taught them so much about hope and love and resiliency and just what you can make your life just regardless of if you have to struggle through something like this or not. So that's a really powerful thing. Pearl Jam plays a benefit concert in the documentary, and that one is still out as far as where it might get picked up for further distribution. And that's really the thing with so many of these films that are shown a Tribeca. Some of them like the Billy Joel one do have a home and will be seen by the rest of the public sometime. A lot of the others are being presented for distribution pickups. So I haven't heard yet if this one has gotten picked up yet.
Dana Taylor:
We'll get an inside look at an icon of the eighties in the documentary 'Boy George and Culture Club'. First, tell me about who helmed the project? What are some of her previous films?
Melissa Ruggieri:
Allison Elwood, this is I think her third or fourth music documentary that she's done. She did the Go-Go's, she did the Eagles, she did Cyndi Lauper, so this would be her fourth, I could do the math now. She's really got this great casual way of showing her subjects. And I mean, the thing with the Boy George one, and you did see it in the Cyndi Lauper one and the Go-Go's as well, she really lets her subjects just be themselves and she finds a lot of humor in them or the natural humor. I mean, she's not looking for it, but it just happens to come out. And in the Culture Club documentary, there's a reason why it's called 'Boy George and Culture Club' because it really is about how when the band first formed and George started a relationship with John Moss, the drummer, and that was something at the time was very, very taboo, and they tried to keep that as quiet as possible.
But then the dramatics that infiltrated the band because of that, right, even before their debut album came out. And then once the debut album came out, and you can look at the band and you see George and of course, who is your eyes drawn to? I mean, it's the flamboyant guy with the hat and the clothes and the makeup and everything else. So the attention very quickly turned to Boy George as the centerpiece of the band and the rest of the band is very candid in the documentary about how much that would bother them and how they felt it became the Boy George show though, and that ultimately it did. They didn't. They never really broke up. That's one of the things they just sort of quietly disappeared. George developed a heroin addiction. He spent time in rehab, and once that happened, the band just sort of went on its own way.
I think they realized that they needed to take a break and they still pop up every now and then. I saw them in concert here about two years ago, three years ago. So they still do summer tours, but there's a lot about the relationships within the band that you see here. And both Mikey Craig and Roy are the other two members of Culture Club. They were actually at the premiere, so they were able to talk a little bit about it more after the screening, and were very emotional about looking back on some of these things that happened, like missing the Live Aid concert and those two not being invited to be part of, 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' With Band Aid, even though George and John Moss were, and there's some bitterness there still, but it seemed like they really viewed it as a cathartic experience.
Dana Taylor:
Melissa, it's been a joy to watch Miley Cyrus evolve as an artist, and something beautiful, we now have both a traditional album and a visual album. What's the vibe of Miley's visual venture?
Melissa Ruggieri:
She really, really is getting creative with this release and she wanted to make it more than just a concept album. She wanted to make it a concept visual album. And she talked to me actually about how it was influenced by Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'. And through the videos that you see, they really are just a string of videos that compliment the songs. So I wouldn't say it's a concept that you can't pluck one out and still enjoy it, but everything is very upbeat. It's very slick, it's very polished, and she looks great. She sounds great. She's got a lot to say on this, so definitely check it out. It was in theaters just for one day after Tribeca, but I believe it's going to be released on a wider platform soon.
Dana Taylor:
You got the chance to screen 'Depeche Mode M'. For those who aren't lifelong fans of the band, tell us a little bit about them and can you explain the connection to Dia de los Muertos or the Day of the Dead in their music documentary?
Melissa Ruggieri:
Well, they're one of the pioneering bands of the eighties with the synth pop movement and new wave and electro pop and all of that. And they've been selling out stadiums around the world for decades. And they did these three stadium shows in Mexico in 2023 that were recorded. And the director decided to make this connection between the Day of the Dead, Dia de Los Muertos and their music, and their last album focused very much on death. They lost one of their founding members, Andy Fletcher in 2022. So you see a lot of just the historical context of what the Day of the Dead means to Mexican people connected to the songs that they're playing on stage. So it's an interesting concept. It's a little ambiguous, but it does bring you along for this ride that you kind of go, oh, okay. I never really thought about looking at the songs that way, but you do now.
Dana Taylor:
Billy Idol, known for eighties hits like 'Rebel Yell' and 'White Wedding' told Paste BN this spring, quote, "I'm lucky to be here." There had to be at least one sex, drugs, and rock and roll documentary on the list. Is this a story about survival?
Melissa Ruggieri:
It is indeed. Billy has talked often, and yes, he and I talked in May and he really reiterated how if he had been doing what he was doing in the eighties today, he would've been long gone. I mean, he had a really awful motorcycle accident many, many years ago, and he really looked at that as a turning point in his life. So this documentary really just looks at all the ways that he has just come out the other side, and he recognizes how lucky he is because most of the people who have done the things he's done and lived through what he's lived through, didn't necessarily make it. But he has, and he's still out there. He is touring with Joan Jett right now.
Dana Taylor:
Pop music has long been one of America's greatest exports. At times, the soaring popularity of music from other corners of the globe makes its way here. What's the background on WizKid? Give us a glimpse into his music doc 'WizKid Long Live Lagos'?
Melissa Ruggieri:
I haven't seen it myself yet, but he is from Nigeria and he is really trying to spread the gospel of Afropop. I mean, he's been around since 2011. He's worked with Drake. He had a remix with Justin Bieber. He's worked with Chris Brown, he's worked with Her. He's worked with a lot of American artists and he's really created an interesting sound that really has transcended continents, but a lot of people don't necessarily know who he is. So the documentary is really taking a look at what he has done to bring his music elsewhere and just to get other countries interested and to understand the backdrop of his music, where it's sort of this cultural authenticity that I believe he really brings to his songs and that's what he wants people to know more about.
Dana Taylor:
And then finally, there are more than a few that we couldn't get to, namely Counting Crows, 'Have You Seen Me Lately?' And another called 'Metallica Saved My Life'. You weren't able to catch them all. I know, but if you could have squeezed in one more, which one would it have been?
Melissa Ruggieri:
It would've been Metallica. And you're right, I wish I could have squeezed in at least three more of these while I was there. That's one thing about Tribeca. There's a lot going on all the time. But the Metallica one is really about the love between the band and its fans and really delves into how much the band's music has meant to so many people and just how it saved their lives. It has gotten them through the worst of times. And you hear that obviously with anybody's music and whoever you might be a fan of. But Metallica has been around for a very long time and they have cultivated generations of fans, and that's what this movie really looks at. And it actually is also being shown in theaters pretty much the same time, whichever city they're going to be playing on their tour currently, that it'll be in theaters like a day or two before day or two after. So you could still check that one out as well.
Dana Taylor:
It's a lot to watch. Thank you so much for being on the Excerpt, Melissa.
Melissa Ruggieri:
Got it.
Dana Taylor:
Thanks to our senior producers, Shannon Rae Green and Kaely Monahan for their production assistance, our executive producers Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts at Usatoday.com. Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor, Taylor Wilson. Be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.