By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Todd Haynes
Country: united_states
Year: 2021
Running time: 121
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7230750/reference
Michael says: “I loved this documentary. It took a subject I new relatively little about, and structured it like an indie, art-house film with talking heads, clips past performances, still images, and more to create a collage of a band, a movement, and a place in the late 60’s/early 70’s. Ostensibly this documentary told the story of legendary avant-garde rock band The Velvet Underground, known for its inclusion of Lou Reed, John Cale, and Nico. What I didn’t know was how instrumental Andy Warhol and his Factory were responsible for the launch of the band (or that they had a female drummer!) Nor was a terribly familiar with their music, other than the fact that the original version of Sweet Jane was from them. Their music intrigued me, as did their larger-than-life, diverging personalities. Haynes focuses on Reed’s and Cale’s childhoods to start, thereby painting a revealing picture of the time and what made them into the men they became. The fascinating Nico swept into and out of the documentary, much the way she did the band. I was also fascinated by the deliberate placement of this art/rock crowd as distinctly anti-hippy despite their concurrent development. It was an outlook I had never thought about among the youth of the late 60’s. It’s not surprising that THE VELVET UNDERGROUND turned out to be such a compelling and fascinating film given its writer/director. Todd Haynes has already shown an interest in the music of a near time with his narrative feature VELVET GOLDMINE. 4 1/2 cats”
Chris says: “Definitive, and maybe my favorite rock and roll doc since DiG! I would’ve never dreamt of Haynes as the filmmaker to tell this band’s story, but this preserves their otherness and evokes a long-gone era so vividly while also recovering his own directorial edge. 5 cats“