MARTIN SCORSESE’S Shine a Light opens with Scorsese and the Rolling Stones negotiating over just how to shoot the film. Scorsese wants a set list well in advance so he can figure out how to position his fleet of cameras and choreograph their movements; the Stones want to ensure that the camerawork doesn’t interfere with the sightlines of the people who paid to be there. Knowing the heartburn he’s causing America’s greatest living director, Mick Jagger laughs to the camera as preparation continues, footloose and fancy-free as ever.

I can’t help but feel that Scorsese was secretly laughing to himself as he assembled the film, subtly taking revenge on the lead singer and his bandmates for the annoyance they had caused him by splicing it with old interviews to remind everyone that the Rolling Stones are, in fact, ancient. Watching Mick Jagger prance around the Beacon Theater like a twenty-something is bad enough, but juxtaposing those images with footage culled from interviews conducted some forty years ago is absolutely jarring. And in some ways, horrific. The Rolling Stones less resemble musicians at this point in their career than leather Muppets.