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The Velvet Underground

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02:14

The Velvet Underground

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• Music
• Musical

• 2021
• Todd Haynes
• 121 mins
• 15

Summary

Documentary exploring the multiple threads that converged to bring together one of the most influential bands in rock and roll.

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IMDB

Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

Kevin Harley

With his 1998 film Velvet Goldmine, Todd Haynes adopted the textures of glam rock for a fictionalised riff on David Bowie and Iggy Pop's stories. With his immersive, incisive documentary portrait of 1960s art-rock progenitors the Velvet Underground, Haynes again adopts his subject's aesthetics to upend genre conventions. Using split-screen visuals, film montage and Andy Warhol's portraits to mesmerising effect, Haynes shows how the Velvets emerged from New York's broiling cultural eco-system to throw down an "elegant... brutal" gauntlet to the era. Hippy "love-peace crap", says drummer Maureen Tucker, was not to be countenanced. The chemistry of contrasts between the virtuosic John Cale and tempestuous Lou Reed also receives deep attention, while Roadrunner singer/songwriter Jonathan Richman adds breathless doses of awestruck reminiscence. Even if more of Richman's wide-eyed fervour might have been welcome, Haynes's study gives this most trailblazing of bands the treatment they demand: radical, shape-shifting and impeccably cool.

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7.3/10

How to watch

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Streaming

• Apple TV+
• Sky Store

Credits

Cast

rolenameLou ReedLou ReedJohn CaleJohn CaleMaureen TuckerMaureen TuckerSterling MorrisonSterling MorrisonDoug YuleDoug YuleJonathan Richman Jonathan Richman

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Crew

rolenameDirectorTodd Haynes

Details

Theatrical distributor

Dogwoof

Released on

2021-10-15

Languages

English

Guidance

swearing, nudity, drug references

Formats

Colour

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