From left, Andy Hummel, Alex Chilton, and Jody Stephens of Big Star (William Eggleston/Magnolia Pictures)

Director Drew DeNicola and Olivia Mori’s documentary rediscovers the Memphis band whose three albums all feature in Rolling Stone’s top 500, even though commercial success eluded them. It’s a story of frustrated ambition, record company mismanagement, industry transformation, and creative rivalry.

Opening in the late ’60s in Memphis, Tennessee, the story unfolds chronologically from the musicians’ pre-Big Star origins to the formation of the four-piece rock band, conceived by sound engineer Chris Bell, fronted by precocious lead singer Alex Chilton—who’d already had a No. 1 at age 16 in the group the Box Tops—with Andy Hummel on bass and Jody Stephens on drums. Their first album, ironically named #1 Record, was released to critical praise under a distribution deal with Memphis soul label Stax. Despite the acclaim, Stax’s diversification into the pop and rock market was badly distributed and promoted, and the album failed to gain crucial radio play.

Ardent Studios, where the group recorded, hatched an ingenious plan, initiating a rock writer’s conference at which Big Star headlined for the invited audience. Although the group triumphed with their experimental combination of garage and folk-rock and secured a place in journalistic legend, distribution problems persisted. Overshadowed by Chilton, Bell split, disillusioned by the lack of label support and recognition of his contributions.

While Bell made music independently, Chilton continued with the band, now a trio, and made a second, R&B-tinged album Radio City. Its release was thwarted when the pressing was engulfed in a warehouse fire. A third effort, variously titled Third and Sister Lovers, never got an official release during the band’s lifetime. Neither captured the originality of Bell’s conception. Embittered by the experience, Chilton cut loose, going on to become involved in the punk and avant-garde rock scene. He produced, among others, the psychobilly band the Cramps. Bell’s solo album I Am the Cosmos, released after his death, is heralded as the lost Big Star album.

Although light on archival material, the film is privileged to portray the eccentric Memphis arts community of the late ’60s and early ’70s by intercutting groundbreaking photographer William Eggleston’s 1974 video Stranded in Canton. Eggleston’s extracts intimately document the Southern scene, its hard-drinking musicians, and Big Star performances. Unfortunately, Chilton declined to be interviewed before he passed away in 2010. Bell died prematurely in a car crash in 1978 at 27 after drugs and personal demons took their toll—his sister expresses her grief in a touching interview. The soundtrack, supervised by Ardent owner John Fry, generously features the band’s back catalog, but the absence of Bell and Chilton stymies any deep creative insights, while the film doesn’t attempt to place the music in broader context.

Despite the band members’ tragic personal lives and the ineptitude by the music industry machine, the directors find a cathartic ending to this extensive, immersive, and devotional film. Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me culminates in a tribute concert in the wake of Alex Chilton’s death in 2010, which introduces a new generation to the inspiration for such diverse musicians as Belle and Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub, the Flaming Lips, Primal Scream, Elliott Smith, and R.E.M.

Watch it with the best sound system or get the soundtrack released on vinyl by Omnivore Recordings.