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.

It has the hallmarks of myth, a touch of Oedipus...a younger brother rescuing his older sibling from his mother... There's craziness, but whether its inherited, or ingested or otherwise invoked, it's hard to tell.The film is vexingly perplexing, so though I was captivated while watching it, upon reflection it feels a little bit like an ambulance gawk. Contrasting the free recklessness of Roky's Elevator youth with his tentative steps at the end of the film is dizzying. He just seems like a husk of a man through most of the movie.The image of him turning on all sorts of noise generators in his cramped apartment to help soothe him to sleep. Fascinating.So I'm glad to read reports here and elsewhere that Roky is if not back, more on track. But I regard them with some suspicion, he's addled innocence seems to invite Svengalis. Footage from the mother's film archives was oddly awesome in a raw, and real outsider...yet creative way. The absent father gets a little screen time, yet a pretty strong indictment in passing. The brother seems caught between a lot of magnetic poles, his own crises rise up...he bites off more than he can chew with Roky...and then as an afterthought we find out he lives next door to said absent father?!?!Weird is the word...And I've left out the channeling therapist (you got to walk before you can rock?) and the once-upon-a-time defenders of electroshock and that track suit guy who celebrates with Sumner at the end.At the end, like any family suffering, I wish them the best, at least some form of solace. And I wonder if Roky ever sort of misses Roky?

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.

Was really wowed by this film. There are moments of utter brilliance, both comedic and dramatic. I laughed throughout the entire film, but the whole thing was suffused with a tragic tenderness that squeezed my heart. Rocky as a young musician is irresistible--charming, handsome, talented, charismatic. Rocky as an aging, mentally ill, reclusive former rocker is equally irresistible. The film takes us on an incredible journey from one to the other and stands out because in Rocky's world, there doesn't seem to be one bedrock of sanity. The filmmaker creates a world completely oblivious and impervious to the one we live in; one we see but can't really believe exists. The music is phenomenal. Truly one of America's untold rock legends.