Take Martin Scorsese; add Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ron Wood, seven famous cinematographers, and cameos by Christina Aguilera, Buddy Guy, Jack White III, and Bill Clinton. Stir briskly for two hours inside Manhattan's Beacon Theatre. What do you get?

The best rock and roll movie I've ever seen.

Mick Jagger was hoping Marty would film the boys on the beach in Rio in front of a million people for Shine a Light, but the director sagely realized a smaller venue would serve us all much better. The result is a gigantic fit of energy bursting off the Beacon's compact stage for two hours without a break. Mick's ever-agile leaps and fantastic looks intercut with file footage from 40 years ago, astounding guitar duels between Keith and Ronnie, and explosive interludes with Aguilera, Guy, and White.

Instead of his usually evil-looking demeanor, Keith Richards is suddenly an amazingly sweet old man, singing "You Got the Silver" from "Let It Bleed" for the first time ever without a guitar. Ronnie says of Keith, "he knows I'm better than he is," and Keith replies, "the truth is, neither of us is very good—but together we're better than 10 people!"

All the greatest hits are here, from "Satisfaction" and "Brown Sugar" to "Start me Up" and "Shattered." The subtext is the same as it's always been: we're the Rolling Stones, and you're not. That means, the calendar be damned! We're going to keep exploding off the stage as long as our creaky joints will carry us.