Todd Haynes, 2h 1m
There’s a good reason nobody made a Velvet Underground documentary before Todd Haynes came along and did it in 2021: Archival footage of the group is extremely minimal, especially from the period after 1968 when they stopped working with Andy Warhol and the attention he brought to their work largely vanished. But Haynes wasn’t interested in preparing a Behind the Music-style documentary that traced their saga in a traditional fashion. Instead, he wanted to immerse viewers in the New York avant-garde scene that made the band possible, and create an impressionistic portrait of their art. The voices of Lou Reed and Sterling Campbell are present via old footage; surviving members John Cale and Maureen Tucker are the primary narrators. They bring a different perspective to the story since Reed’s version of V.U. history was dominant for so long, even if it means the brilliant post-Cale albums don’t get nearly enough screen time. But the overall effect is mesmerizing, giving you an incredible sense of where this band came from, why they mattered and why they were destined to inevitably, gloriously flame out. – Rolling Stone
Co-presented with Next Chapter Records
