Between this, The Sparks Brothers, Summer Of Soul, and The Beatles: Get Back, 2021 was a good year for music documentaries. Maybe it's because of COVID lockdowns, where it's harder to film more normal movies, and surely most directors would have at least one musical artist they'd love to make a documentary about.
The Velvet Underground works pretty well. It tries to capture the rough, messy, but unique and captivating qualities of the band to moderate success. The style is quite eclectic and unconventional at times, but next usually in the way that The Velvet Underground (the band) were able to do when they were at their best.
I did appreciate how the documentary was at its artiest when covering their first album and the whole NY art scene, it was at its messiest and loudest when covering their chaotic second album, mellowed out when focusing on their soft third album, felt bright and like a traditional documentary when covering their pop-rock fourth album, and completely ignored their apparently terrible fifth album entirely.
There's some good info here and sometimes cool, sometimes frustrating presentation. There are parts earlier on that focus in on Andy Warhol and his whole thing in the 60s for a surprisingly long time. It's important context for the band of course, but it spends maybe just a bit too long on this detour.
Ultimately it's still a good documentary though. It's well above average and there's clearly love and thought put into it; I just didn't connect with it 100% of the time.
The Velvet Underground works pretty well. It tries to capture the rough, messy, but unique and captivating qualities of the band to moderate success. The style is quite eclectic and unconventional at times, but next usually in the way that The Velvet Underground (the band) were able to do when they were at their best.
I did appreciate how the documentary was at its artiest when covering their first album and the whole NY art scene, it was at its messiest and loudest when covering their chaotic second album, mellowed out when focusing on their soft third album, felt bright and like a traditional documentary when covering their pop-rock fourth album, and completely ignored their apparently terrible fifth album entirely.
There's some good info here and sometimes cool, sometimes frustrating presentation. There are parts earlier on that focus in on Andy Warhol and his whole thing in the 60s for a surprisingly long time. It's important context for the band of course, but it spends maybe just a bit too long on this detour.
Ultimately it's still a good documentary though. It's well above average and there's clearly love and thought put into it; I just didn't connect with it 100% of the time.