You're Gonna Miss Me (2005)

79% of critics liked it
(19 reviews)
66% of users liked it
(8,539 ratings)

The founding father of psychedelic music is profiled in director Keven McAlester's intimate look at the life and career of legendary 13th Floor Elevators frontman Roger Kynard "Roky" Erickson. His voice was powerful enough to start a musical revolution, but the noise in his head would ultimately… More The founding father of psychedelic music is profiled in director Keven McAlester's intimate look at the life and career of legendary 13th Floor Elevators frontman Roger Kynard "Roky" Erickson. His voice was powerful enough to start a musical revolution, but the noise in his head would ultimately prove too overwhelming to ignore. A rock & roll icon whose epic heroin and LSD binges preceded a devastating battle with schizophrenia, Erickson gradually withdrew from the music scene while growing increasingly obsessed with religion. Now, as the 53-year-old Erickson sits in his apartment just outside of Austin, TX, listening to multiple television, radios, scanners, and electric keyboards, fans can finally find out just what ever happend to the man who became one of rock & roll's greatest mysteries. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 34 min.
Directed By: Keven McAlester
Written By: Keven McAlester
Genres: Documentary, Drama, Musical & Performing Arts, Special Interest

In Theaters: Jun 8, 2007 Wide
On DVD: Jul 10, 2007
Studio: Palm Pictures

Critic Reviews

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
There's an undeniable fascination to watching the extensive footage of Erickson, whose yowling, manic vocals on display in the extensive archival performance footage contrasts dramatically with scenes of him in more recent times.
Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Times
You're Gonna Miss Me follows Roky Erickson, the lead singer of the 13th Floor Elevators and maybe the most influential 1960s pop star that most folks haven't heard of.
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor
Complexly intriguing.
Rafer Guzman, Newsday
A sensitive case-study of a promising artist who fell afoul of the system but still managed, with the help of family, to reassemble his shattered life.
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Director Keven McAlester thinks he's making Crumb, but he doesn't give you enough of [Roky] Erickson in his glory. You're Gonna Miss Me has the taint of exploitation.
Aaron Hillis, Village Voice
With battered archival footage and celebrity worship, [director] McAlester skimps on perspective and complexity.
Annlee Ellingson, Boxoffice Magazine
Today Roky is actually on tour again, with a number of 2007 musical festival appearances including Coachella -- a development at least worthy of an afterword.
Ted Fry, Seattle Times
Like any good documentary, this one releases information slowly and sometimes with startling abruptness.
Shawn Levy, Oregonian
Like Crumb or The Devil and Daniel Johnston, it's remarkably close-up moviemaking, with family secrets laid bare for all the world to see.
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 several clips of rare footage from the Elevators days that
Louis Proyect, rec.arts.movies.reviews
Powerful drama about a legendary rock musician's battle with schizophrenia and a chance at a new life.
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
One senses that this profile has been made by a fan who assumes we'll supply the pathos ourselves. And drug casualties are surely upsetting. But how can we miss someone we never really get to know?
Gary Goldstein, Reel.com
Another dysfunctional American family gets its documentary close-up in the sad but involving You're Gonna Miss Me, the story of legendary music pioneer Roger "Roky" Erickson.
Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Keven McAlester's superb documentary about Texas singer-songwriter Roky Erickson scratches the surface of an artist's life only to find a welter of insanity, secrets and family dysfunction.
Prairie Miller, Long Island Press
A potentially meaningful endeavor, but one that just seems to get led astray, and bogged down in the sordid details of Rory's ensuing lifelong mental illness and dysfunctional family history.
Don R. Lewis, Film Threat
You're Gonna Miss Me is still a great meld of rock history, the sociological and familial impacts of mental disability and some courtroom intrigue.
, Austin Chronicle
McAlester documents Erickson's musical rise and unfortunate decline into a mental illness he still struggles with, unleashing archival performances and home videos in this documentary film.
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The movie does an exceptional job of placing Erickson in the context of the many forces that molded his peculiar genius.
Oz, eFilmCritic.com
It's gripping stuff to watch and, quite frankly, the stuff that great documentaries are made of.

Read all 19 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

El Hombre I

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… More
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 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.
Wu C

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.

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You're Gonna Miss Me (2005)

Critic Reviews

Featured Audience Ratings

El Hombre I

Wu C

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