HBO’s ‘Rolling Stone: Stories From The Edge’ Documentary Highlights The Uncomfortable And Unavoidable Intersection Of Pop Culture And Politics

Perhaps a more fitting title for HBO’s latest documentary, Rolling Stone: Stories From The Edge, could’ve been Rolling Stone: It’s All Just A Little Bit of History Repeating. Directed by Alex Gibney, the man responsible for the Scientology doc Going Clear and Blair Foster, who brought us George Harrison: Living in the Material World, the teaming up of these two forces perfectly captures the last 50 years of Rolling Stone magazine and all the pop, pot, and politics that comes along with it.

The documentary is broken up into 2 two-hour installments, airing Monday and Tuesday night at 9pm on HBO. The first part focuses on the first decade of the publication, as told by founder Jann Wenner and narrated by Jeff Daniels. From the San Francisco music scene to groupies to Ike & Tina Turner and John Lennon & Yoko Ono, the first part of the doc plays out like a standard music documentary. Once it starts to move into Hunter S. Thompson’s work (narrated by Johnny Depp) and the 1972 election and the Patty Hearst scandal, and the way the magazine covered these major events, then things start to get interesting. For those that have blocked it out or weren’t present at the time, there are a terrible amount of parallels between the 1972 and 2016 election — and the way both are covered are sure to make you feel uncomfortable. On the bright side, footage from the 1972 Democratic convention provides a brief reminder of what a total babe 1970’s Jack Nicholson was.

The moments between photographer Annie Leibovitz and Wenner are especially sweet, to hear about the way the long-time collaborators worked and the stories they have to tell about different articles that we’ve all grown up reading — including that infamous John and Yoko photo.

The documentary is fair in covering Rolling Stone’s biggest stories, everything from Bruce to boy bands, the disturbing rise of the Sex Pistols to the even more disturbing way the media covered Ice-T, Public Enemy, and the LA riots. It’s one of many times the documentary highlights the way politics and pop culture intersect, and clash, at that. A handful of stories are given the spotlight, telling what the directors, and perhaps the magazine as well, consider to be defining stories over the past 50 years. Some are remembered more fondly than others, for sure, but all paint a picture of a rebellious publication that has mattered to many different facets of the media world over the years.

Owning up to their mistakes, Wenner isn’t afraid to address and clarify what went down in their 2014 reporting of an alleged rape on the UVA campus, a defining moment for the magazine, albeit certainly not a proud one. By this point in the documentary (towards the second half of part two), it’s already been established what an influential body of work Rolling Stone has become over all these decades. Which is why the documentary, which feels like an honest look back on the good, bad, and rock ‘n’ roll of American history, ends on a bummer. The final section of the film is the 2016 election, a moment which will remain an undeniably huge part of American history. But including it here can’t help but feel a little bit too soon, even though it had to be addressed. You’ll just find yourself yearning for a simpler time, like when the country was flipping out over Britney Spears posting with a Teletubby, for instance.

Media nerds, music fans, and pop culture junkies will all enjoy parts of this documentary for sure. Some stories are given way more attention than they deserve and some way less, but it mostly moves at an admirable pace and supplies enough new information, even for those that lived through it all. There’s a fondness in recalling the words and pictures we’ve all seen a million times, and hearing the stories behind them from the people that created and published them. With that also comes the dread of reliving footage and truths that have shaped our country’s history, but definitely not always for the better. The documentary is equal parts embarrassing and exuberant and yet, a consistent a reminder of what an accomplishment a little rock ‘n’ roll newspaper turned out to be.