I missed this when it aired on Sundance and it sounded interesting enough that I bought it. It is a tragic story. Though it centers around Roky Erickson, it shows the deeper tragedy surrounding his entire family.

Poor, doomed Roky Erickson.

His second acid trip hurt him, according to 13th Floor Elevators drummer John Ike Walton, but it didn't discourage him from 300 more trips to the same well, burning holes in his mind that most likely will never fill in again if "You're Gonna Miss Me" is any indication.

From all accounts, Erickson was never the same after a year in San Francisco, returning to his hometown of Austin, Texas only to be arrested for possession of marijuana, diagnosed with schizophrenia, and banished to a state mental hospital and endless days of shock therapy and tranquilization. Upon release, he clawed his way from the center of the maelstrom with a series of killer influential albums filled with themes of paranoia and detachment and marked by his hellbent psychopathic raving and cerebral looniness. Then he went off his meds, off the edge, and off his rocker...

By the late 90's, Erickson, possessed of a voice truly unrivalled in the animal kingdom and originator of the term "psychedelic rock," was light years beyond "troubled," reduced to living in government housing where he lorded over his peculiarly dark corner of the universe, days filled with...well...not much other than sitting around his apartment in sunglasses, cloaked in humming white noise from televisions, radios, police scanners, amps, and electric keyboards, waiting around for a daily visit from his mother, Evelyn - a real piece of work - who figures in this story almost as much as her son.

Enter Roky's youngest brother Sumner, whose fundamental problem with his mother's care of his brother is her refusal to climb on board a program for Roky based on therapy and better living through chemistry, fully convinced some unlocked combination of colorful pills will return him back to if not something approaching "normal," then at least back from the brink of wherever he's calling "home."

While there is a happy ending here, as laid out in two postscript segments in the bonus features, don't come to "You're Gonna Miss Me" expecting a glimpse of anything close to the Erickson of yore, handing down some sort of cosmo-dynamic enlightenment to the huddled masses. His full recovery, I suspect, much like the journey that took him to nowheresville in the first place, is something that won't happen overnight, if at all.

On June 13, 1975, Erickson had himself legally declared "an alien from a planet other than Earth." If you'd been born on Saturn, you'd be different, too.

"You're Gonna Miss Me" is a creative, superbly made documentary on the life of Austin rock legend Roky Erickson. Fans should be warned that the film isn't a music video or a retrospective of any kind, and so shouldn't be approached as such. It is not even "entertainment", though it's very engaging, moving and even suspenseful. Those seeking only Roky's music should just skip to the Extras (although there you'll find his full reading of "I Know the Hole in Baby's Head", which strongly hints at the dark real-life stuff in the film). Only some brief interviews with folks like Thurston Moore and ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons give the film any commonality with typical music docs.

Rather the film is a harrowing, painful and unblinking story of personal survival. It portrays, with incredible up-close intimacy, Erickson's lifelong schizophrenia and the chillingly dysfunctional and tragic family from which he has no means to distance himself. You'll find yourself amazed that he's still alive and getting by - in his own odd way - after all he's been through.

Most of the film documents Erickson's day-to-day life with his mother, and we soon realize she's as toxic a presence in his life as mental illness or state incarceration ever were. Think of the Pink Floyd song "Mother" and you'll have some clue about this woman, who is nonetheless a sympathetic figure herself. She plainly cares and means well. Most interestingly, she's very musical and artistic herself - and nearly as eccentric as her son is.

One of Roky's brothers (a classical musician) finally stages an intervention. A Texas court appoints the brother as Roky's sole guardian; at last getting him the proper treatment he so badly needs. While the film doesn't have a "happy" conclusion, at least it ends with Roky being much more stable and contented than he'd been in years. Those closest to Erickson describe him as always being very likable and sweet; and this quality still shines brightly forth from him despite everything. I very much wonder how he's doing today.

File this astounding documentary of a dysfunctional family right next to your DVDs of Crumb, Capturing the Friedmans and your CD of Wild Man Fisher. Keven McAlister's excellent direction of one family's struggle to help a mentally ill member takes us inside the drama in a beautiful and revealing way. Mother vs brother, who can help this man? BTW, I saw Roky perform at Seattle's Bumbershoot in 2007. He arrived in fine form, good press lead to a large and enthusiastic crowd, and put on a good show. Don't miss this one.

Roky Erickson and his band, the 13th Floor Elevators were a 60's rock band that seemed on the cusp of great success. They achieved a small amount of fame and this was greatly due to the power of Roky Erickson's voice. (It's very easy to believe that Janis Joplin was greatly influenced by Erickson as the film contends.) As with many other bands of the era, the group experimented heavily with psychedelic drugs. When Roky combined rampant drug use along with a preexisting mental illness he began behaving much more erratically, and slowly began fading away from society.

"You're Gonna Miss Me.." attempts to fill in what has happened to Roky in the twenty or so years since he disappeared from the public eye as well as show his current status. As it turns out, Erickson has been living in Austin under the care of his mother who has made him virtually unavailable to any other members of his family or doctors to help him with his illness. Indeed, one of the first times we see Roky today he is enraptured with a Mr. Potato Head doll. A huge rift has developed within his family, as it appears that Erickson's mother is also in dire need of some psychiatry as well. The creators of "You're Gonna Miss Me" have certainly chosen an interesting subject, and generally present it well. They did a fine job of capturing Roky, his living conditions, and his relationship with his mother. They also managed to locate more than enough footage throughout the years to document Roky's unraveling.

Despite the compelling material, there are a number of problems with the documentary. First, there is only passing attention paid to Erickson's father, brothers, or son. There was obviously much that had happened over the years between the family and Roky's mother that was not discussed during the documentary. I felt that those people had a lot to do with the story, but I was never allowed to really get to know them. There was even a remark made in passing during the film that Roky's father may have molested one or more of his sons, but for whatever reason the filmmakers chose not to investigate this further. The ending of the documentary left me wanting as well. There was a long period of time that Roky was in therapy and was taking medicine that the audience does not get to see. We jump from Roky being almost completely out of it to somewhat coherent months later. It would have been fascinating to see Erickson slowly reemerge. Although we get to see Roky pick up the guitar the guitar again, he clearly had a long way to go, and I'm sure the movie would have played better if the filmmakers had continued following Erickson for a while longer. (Luckily the dvd bonus materials help achieve that sense of closure the film lacks.)

The 13th Floor Elevators still have many fans today (some of them famous musician tons in their own right), and Erickson's fall into the depths of mental illness is an interesting and tragic one. The viewer can't help but feel that if the right actions had been taken at any number of critical times in Erickson's life that he might have avoided a large number of his problems.