The Velvet Underground

Without belaboring the point, The Velvet Underground also makes the case for Warhol’s enduring significance.

This bracing collage is pure rock bliss and a poke in the eye to old-style storytelling.

If you already love the Velvet Underground, this is two hours of visual and aural bliss. If you don't, same.

Claims for the eternal qualities of any music are dubious at best, but what Haynes exhibits through his own complex, textured documentary is that the Velvet Underground's music remains fertile ground for inspiration.

Haynes jettisons the traditional role of talking heads; he dispatches incidental music; he regards emotional arcs and sentimentality the way he might a toothache. He made a film that feels of a kind with the subject.

What makes a rock band worth attending to a half century after its breakup isn't its personalities or backstory or context, interesting as those can be, and here they're all highly interesting. It's the music.

The Velvet Underground is a solid and well-made showcase of the group and will surely please diehards and may offer an opportunity for beginners to dive into the group's back catalogue.

In The Velvet Underground documentary, Todd Haynes shows the music catapulting across time and space to Andy Warhol’s Factory, where the alchemy worked its magic.

Haynes' use of the documentary medium is as remarkable as one might expect from the acclaimed director. The use of sound and image revolts against the traditions of the music documentaries genre, opting instead for an appropriately creative journey.

A piece of pure cinema that exemplifies its genre while transcending it.