Yikes, this was awful.

As someone who's only listened to a few albums in The Rolling Stones' discography (most without Jones' involvement),I was ready to be convinced that Jones was the true mastermind behind the band, and a musical genius... but the first hour largely fails to present a compelling argument to what made him so great (he played the cool sitar part on Paint it Black is all I can remember - and there are disappointingly no Rolling Stones tracks used, so you just have to hum said sitar part to yourself. Any music examples would have helped the "underrated music genius" argument, but the song rights clearly weren't within the film's budget).

Then it just turns into a tedious and not particularly well made true crime documentary in the last half hour, and even if some interviewees disputed the conspiracies, the ones that did try to push them didn't make many great arguments.

Honestly, Brian Jones seems like a bit of a tag-along, and given that so much great music was made by the band after his departure, I'm thoroughly unconvinced that he was the secret mastermind behind the band. The documentary describes him as being constantly drunk and/or high around (and then after) the time the band started to find popularity, too.

I also remain highly skeptical of any possibility that he was murdered. This documentary tried very hard to put forth that he was misunderstood musical genius + hE wAs MuRdErEd as it's two main arguments, but fails almost completely.

Some really dodgy interviewees, too, who barely even seem to make sense some of the time. ("Brian could resist everything but temptation" one of them sincerely says at one point. That's literally as dumb as the "pain don't hurt" line from Roadhouse).

Someone needs to make a documentary about Brian Jones and center on his music, his guitar playing, whether slide or perfect rhythm to Keith Richards' rough, messy leads, and not just center on his death as if he only lived to die...

What's here could be best described as a kind of gossip-documentary coming from various friends, none of them that important, memorable, or famous except Ian Stewart's voice from an obviously very old interview...

The same images of Brian are shown that we've seen a hundred times, and never strumming more than once on a guitar but making cute faces and messing around. What's worse here is the music. They couldn't afford The Rolling Stones so they settle for really bad renditions of what sounds like a cover band warming up.

15 minutes into this I thought it might be a mockumentary. Kind of like Spinal Tap with marbled mouth geriatrics telling the story. Here are some serious issues I had with this. 1. It has the premise that Brian was the creative force behind the Stones. Yet, it only gives 3 verbal, not musical examples. Sitar on Paint it Black. The Marimba on Under My Thumb. And slide guitar on No Expectations. He wrote none of them, so I fail to see how he could be more significant musically than Mick and Keith. In fact the movie states several times, Brian can not write music. It also implies Brian was jealous of Satisfaction. Exactly how was he the driving force of the band? I have heard this for years, but this film gave no answers, yet stated it multiple times. 2. Most of the women mentioned in the movie are ONLY mentioned by first name, as if the average viewer has any idea who they were. Some hold significant parts, especially Anita, whom I had to research to find out who she was. 3.There is no coherent concept in this film. It is an onslaught interviews of "who the F are these guys". It desperately needed a narrator to tie up all of these disparate, and sometimes irrelevant interviews of people that you have no idea how they fit into the story. 4. Not one mention of Charlie Watts' name in the whole 2 hours. Wyman mentioned once. Mick and Keith are portrayed as lesser talents. Coincidence that the golden era of the Stones commenced upon Brian's departure? They even describe Keith as not as much into drugs as Brian, then say his death was not substance abuse related.(?) 5. Most annoying. Harsh British and French accents speaking rapidly, whilst simultaneously putting writing on the screen of information that is relevant to the story, yet not what the speaker is saying. How is one to follow dialog and reading at the same time? 6. No rights to the music. If you can not procure rights to the musician you are documenting, maybe re-think the whole idea of making this project. And quit using the same 4 second video clips repeatedly through the whole movie.

This film left me frustrated. The subject is clearly worthy of a well made documentary. This is not it.