You're Gonna Miss Me poster & wallpaper

Byron Coley, Evelyn Erickson, Patti Smith

Outside Austin, Texas, a 53-year-old man sits in an apartment with four radios, three televisions, two amps, a radio scanner, and a casio electric piano playing. At the same time. Loudly. He has three...( read more  read more... ) teeth, his hair is matted into one huge dreadlock, and he has a notarized document on his wall declaring himself an alien, "so whoever's putting shocks to my head will stop." Thirty years earlier, Roger Kynard "Roky" Erickson was a rock-and-roll icon: A manic white-blues singer who was Janis Joplin's primary influence, he fronted a band called the 13th Floor Elevators, considered by many to be the creators of psychedelic music. After a 1969 marijuana arrest, Erickson entered an insanity plea and was sent to the Rusk State Hospital, a medieval institution deep in the east Texas pineforests. He remained there for three years with the state's most violent mentally ill offenders, then reemerged a changed man: He sang about ghouls, zombies, and Satan, christened himself "the evil one," and declared himself an alien. At some point he stopped recording altogether and disappeared: "the great lost vocalist of rock and roll." For the past 12 years, Erickson has lived as a total recluse, shut in with his white noise and watching cartoons all day. He collects junk-mail by the stack. He only opens the door for his mother, Evelyn. Evelyn spends her days in their crumbling family home, abandoned by her other four sons and husband, doing yoga and reimagining her life through homemade films and "storyboards"--large planks of cardboard onto which she's pasted family photos and written out the story of their lives, "to convince myself that I'd been a good mother." Through them, she slowly charts the disintegration of their family. Her youngest son Sumner, the only family member to have escaped, has not returned home in ten years. He hears of his brother's situation and vows to persuade his mother to cede control of Roky in a "crusade to give his brother his life and music back." Upon his arrival, Roky and Evelyn's insular world slowly unravels.

Flixster Users

63% liked it

8,081 ratings

Critics

78% liked it

18 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 31 min.

Directed by: Keven McAlester

Release Date: June 8, 2007

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DVD Release Date: July 10, 2007

Stats: 210 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (210)

  • Jungian
    August 2, 2008
    Jungian
    aa story about a life that's as tragic as it is enigmatic. very interesting character that roky is. what his brother is trying to do for him towards the end just scream exploitation to me rather than sincerity.
  • DrBenway
    June 20, 2008
    DrBenway
    Was it the drug usage that transformed him from a rock pioneer into an incoherent burnout, or was it the preexisting schizophrenia? Was it the treatments that he received in the hospitals, or was it simply the fact that he was locked up in these hospitals? These questions really ...( read more)can't be answered, and the documentary does not attempt to do so. What it does do is present the man's life story from the beginning of his musical career up until the present leaving it up to the viewer to come to his or her own conclusions about this tragic turn of events.
  • KLFilmmaker
    February 19, 2009
    KLFilmmaker
    A fascinating doc about Roky Erickson, the singer for '13th floor elevators'. Very similar to the doc 'Devil in Daniel Johnston' and just as good.
  • dukeakasmudge
    October 18, 2009
    dukeakasmudge
    Watching this documentary made me want to go out & find some Roky Erickson CDs
  • engrymfilm
    March 4, 2009
    engrymfilm
    Well deserved recognition for a very underrated psychedelic master even if it delves mainly into his sanity more than anything.
  • jules07d
    January 25, 2009
    jules07d
    Such a same cause the 13th floor elevators were so good!
  • eskaton666
    January 13, 2008
    eskaton666
    An interesting look at Roky Erickson. Being that I like his music and work in the mental health field, this one really hit home for me.
  • douglasmarkaz
    December 4, 2007
    douglasmarkaz
    Weird, sad, tragic and real story of ruined musical talent. If you liked The Devil and Daniel Johnston, you should watch this movie.
  • MovieGuruDude72
    October 23, 2007
    MovieGuruDude72
    Sounds like an eccentric movie that only 2 or 3 people will ever watch.

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Critic Reviews

June 18, 2007
Kurt Loder, MTV

The film chronicles [Roky's brother] Sumner's quest - and [Roky's mother] Evelyn's resistance, and Roky's oblivious disconnection - in scenes of remarkable and distressing intimacy. There are also sev... full review

View more You're Gonna Miss Me reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • dunnlikedinner
    June 9, 2007
    dunnlikedinner
    HA wall VIRGINITY STOLEN!!!! i don't really have anything to say about it...it looks kinda weird....but id watch it
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