Upscale and even literary Jewish Manhattanites who’ve flirted with Tibetan Buddhism, the Beastie Boys aren’t nearly so proletarian as the bridge-and-tunnel fans who filled Madison Square Garden for an October 2004 concert. Yet the no-longer-boyish rappers still have the common touch, as their hyperactive concert film of the event demonstrates. Shot by 50 fans (as well as a few video-professional ringers) and directed by Adam “MCA” Yauch (aka Nathanial Hörnblowér), Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! looks like something that was assembled by a 14-year-old on his first laptop editing program. There’s nothing exactly awesome about the result, which suggests Fugazi’s Instrument if it had been made by a colony of ADD-afflicted baboons: Most shots last for only a few seconds, the image quality is generally poor, and the effects—posterization, negative images, black and white, freeze frames, split screen—are arbitrary and strictly off-the-shelf. Talking points include the Boys’ matching green track suits, visitations from Doug E. Fresh and Ben Stiller, and one of the shooters’ point-of-view documentation of his own trip to the toilet. In other words, the awkwardly punctuated Awesome—a semicolon? Told you they were literary—will quickly separate the true believers from the people who only ever really liked Paul’s Boutique and the Rick Rubin parts of Licensed to Ill. Yet the doc is a decent enough demonstration reel for Yauch, proof that he knows enough about filmmaking to someday construct a watchable documentary, even if this isn’t it. The movie also has a goofy sort of integrity, feeling as homemade as some of the scratch-and-chant songs, which include “Root Down,” “Sabotage,” and “Body Movin’” but not any of Ill’s catchiest and most sophomoric hits. Those, of course, turned the joke-hardcore trio into a mainstream hiphop powerhouse without diminishing its brattiness, which remains an animating principle. If the Beasties won’t do “Fight for Your Right (To Party)” anymore, its spirit abides in Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That!’s DIY style.—Mark Jenkins