'I Trust You to Kill Me'

Perhaps you are wondering why a little-known band called Rocco DeLuca and the Burden merits a glossy feature-length documentary of its whirlwind European tour. After watching Manu Boyer's film, you may still wonder: This could be the first film in the annals of rock docs in which the star power is supplied by the tour manager—a fellow named Kiefer Sutherland, who chose DeLuca as the first signing on his new label. Charmingly lacking in Jack Bauer's surly sangfroid—his tipsy tackling of a hotel lounge Christmas tree is an instant YouTube keeper—Sutherland flogs DeLuca's music from dingy London dives to Scandinavian TV: His ultimate goal is to get out of the group's way, but his fame is inevitably the currency that gets anyone to pay attention. Especially since DeLuca—a scruffy, brooding sort given to chipped black nail polish and pronouncements like "The most beautiful instrument in the world is a black woman's voice"—is a less than compelling stage presence whose bluesy coffeehouse alterna-rock makes Sutherland's passionate devotion a mystery. (A London booking agent nails it when he says the band needs to "play at least another 200 shows.") Boyer does a slick recital of rock-doc greatest hits, from black-and-white interviews to roughed-up basement performance footage, and the rousing finale catches the band at its liveliest. Even so, when Sutherland gets the movie's title engraved on his arm in Icelandic runes, you can't help but feel you're watching the most ill-advised megastar tat since Johnny Depp's "Winona Forever."