87
Metascore
31 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMaking 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.
- 100The PlaylistRodrigo PerezThe PlaylistRodrigo PerezThe VU feels like it’s told from the perspective of the band members and is always veering far away from talking-head doc standards.
- 94TheWrapSteve PondTheWrapSteve PondIt’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.
- 90Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganScreen DailyFionnuala HalliganIn short, The Velvet Underground is a documentary that meets the Velvet Underground eye-to-eye and enriches it.
- 88Slant MagazinePat BrownSlant MagazinePat BrownTodd Haynes’s documentary excitingly captures an era’s explosion of creativity, one that bespoke new and challenging kinds of freedom.
- 83IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichAt 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.
- 80The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawThis 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.
- 80The TelegraphRobbie CollinThe TelegraphRobbie CollinThe Velvet Underground is not the kind of music documentary that dutifully walks the viewer through the greatest hits and bitterest feuds. Instead, it re-conjures the moment that made the hits possible and the feuds inevitable, via a whirl of archive footage and interviews new and old.
- 80VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanAs a collage of the period, The Velvet Underground is dazzling: a hypnotic act of high-wire montage. You can tell that Haynes wants to take us as close to this band as possible, and if that means his entire documentary is going to have to be a kind of poetic sleight-of-hand trick, then so be it.