Synopsis
Experience the iconic rock band's legacy in the first major documentary to tell their story. Directed with the era’s avant-garde spirit by Todd Haynes, this kaleidoscopic oral history combines exclusive interviews with dazzling archival footage.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Lou ReedSelf (archive footage)
- John CaleSelf
- Sterling MorrisonSelf (archive footage)
- Maureen TuckerSelf
- Jonas MekasSelf
- Jonathan RichmanSelf
- John WatersSelf
- NicoSelf (archive footage)
- David BowieSelf (voice)
- Doug YuleSelf (archive footage)
Recommendations
- 100
The Hollywood Reporter
Making ingenious use of split-screen, experimental montage and densely layered images and sound over two fabulously entertaining hours, Haynes puts his distinctive stamp on the material while crafting a work that could almost have come from the same artistic explosion it celebrates. - 100
The Playlist
The VU feels like it’s told from the perspective of the band members and is always veering far away from talking-head doc standards. - 100
Observer
A sonic-boom look at a seismic band, The Velvet Underground dissects one of the most influential 1960s musical acts with dizzying visual flair and a structural academic rigor refracted through a showman’s prism. - 94
TheWrap
It’s a dark, disturbing and glorious film about a dark, disturbing and glorious band, and another sign that Haynes knows how to put music onscreen in a way that few other directors do. - 90
Screen Daily
In short, The Velvet Underground is a documentary that meets the Velvet Underground eye-to-eye and enriches it. - 88
Slant Magazine
Todd Haynes’s documentary excitingly captures an era’s explosion of creativity, one that bespoke new and challenging kinds of freedom. - 83
IndieWire
At its best, Haynes’ film is neither a dry accounting of who the Velvets were nor a heady evocation of their work; it’s a movie about the fires these people set inside each other and how they spread to anyone else who was burning and gave them the same permission to push back against expectations. - 80
The Guardian
This is a great documentary about people who are serious about music and serious also about art, and what it means to live as an artist.
