Synopsis
Trailers
Reviews (127)
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i could have put my life savings on john waters appearing in a documentary like this and if i did i would be a much much richer man
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Hypnotically vibrating in the fuzzy black space between a very special episode of “Behind the Music” and the longest film that Stan Brakhage never made, Todd Haynes’ “The Velvet Underground” is a documentary (his first) by a man whose previous musical tributes include a glam-rock fantasia that gave David Bowie the “Citizen Kane” treatment, a “Mishima”-esque kaleidoscope that refracted Bob Dylan through the infinity mirror of his own myth, and an underground Karen Carpenter biopic that cast the late singer as a literal Barbie doll. It makes Haynes’ choice to make a comparatively straightforward non-fiction movie about his favorite band is a curious one, and it calls implicit attention to the kind of artistic intentionality that most womb-to-tomb music docs…
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I am of two… three? minds on this documentary. First is the professional-graphic-designer-who-also-edits mind, who looks at the way this film solves for the ever changing aspect ratios of archival material shot in 1~:1 and modern digital interviews and smacks herself on the head and goes “fuck, that’s actually kind of brilliant.” Haynes lays this whole movie out like a graphic designer would – instead of centered squares they’re justified right or left with white text spaced almost vertically beside it in place of traditional subtitles. He then uses split screens to build collages of texture and material on a theme, whatever is being spoken of – from the 1960s New York arts scene to band practice to state of…
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In its way sort of only tangentially about the band and more a travelogue through the contemporaneous AG scene, one of the most substantive and fecund periods of American art ever, jammed with incredible music and archive footage and interviews. As good as this kind of thing gets.
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It is rare to get a movie that seems so calibrated for me, I mean it introducers 60s New York scene, which is as much the film subject as the Velvets, with Jonas Mekas. Haynes makes a great use of a key contradiction, that the Factory scene was so well visually documented while the band itself wasn’t so much, to animate his gifts as an editor, so a good chunk of the movie exists around the band while they remain vital. The movie is both great with the music and with making the band pulsate as part of the art scene. I wish there were a bit more on the Non-Cale albums. Occasionally, it remembers it is an Apple+ doc and goes into dull talking head mode, but most of the interviews used are fine and one of Haynes better achievements is that it feels suspended period piece more than a retrospective.
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Todd Haynes, I’m sticking with you. Pure visual heroine that is best enjoyed on a Sunday morning. Run run run and watch this.
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i can’t believe it took me so long to get to this. a wonderfully accurate depiction of the stance of an artist, the value of beauty, the alchemy of art and commerce colliding. fuckery, sex, intelligence, great songs, drugs, dirt, the desire for more, sunglasses 24/7, hating la and sometimes really fucking hating eachother. elegant and brutal as john would say.
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Surprisingly tame but formally engrossing. It’s extremely banal to say a movie “is not boring,” but after watching Moonage Daydream recently, it can insightful now and then.
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“If its not hard and humiliating then its not sex, you wouldnt understand because youre becoming a republican” Wrap it up, I need book with Lous quotes, not just poems
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Que pedazo de banda pero el documental medio flojo muy aburrido.
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Lou and John are a Geniuses. Somehow I Wish I had His Attitude more.
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Can’t believe this didn’t go over their most beloved and widely adored album, Squeeze.
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I. Like this documentary i like that it treats U with respect and also when Jonathan richman starts miming the band it’s like dang Yep I think I liked it more when it came out than I did this time but it’s still very good
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Kiss the boot of shiny shiny leather
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I spent months trying to find a Velvet underground documentary and now I’ve found one, brilliant shit. I loved how the documentary was edited like a lot of Andy Warhol’s movies, particularly “Chelsea Girls” It’s amazing to me how this band were so heavily overlooked despite releasing such amazing albums in the short time they were around. Another stand out part was the collective shitting on the hippie movement when they toured in L.A. Even calling out the “Mothers of…
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My 600th log! I loooooooooove The Velvet Underground, and the way Todd Haynes made this documentary just made me appreciate their music more. Also David Bowie and John Waters mentioned!
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Solid documentary. Would’ve like more details, but it’s still a nice way to get into the band as a whole.
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“He was talented beyond his talent—he can’t sing, he can’t play—but everything he did with that craggly voice resonated with you.” What I had wished the Bowie doc Moonage Daydream would’ve been. Flashy and slick, insightful and never dull, the flick portrays the ups and downs of one of the most important bands in modern music. Maybe that’s why the Bowie film didn’t work—you just can’t film a chameleon cause you never truly see them. #TeamCale Biggest gripe? The sound kept fucking up whilst playing it through Apple TV on Amazon Prime. Get your shit together, guys.
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“They had shined so brightly that no space could contain that amount of light being put out. You need physics to describe that band at its height.” Music plays an important part of my life besides cinema undoubtedly, and I have been heavily listening to The Velvet Underground’s music since the beginning of 2026. Despite their short career and relatively limited discography in the 20th century, they cemented their status as one of the most influential bands in music history.…
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Very stylish documentary with a very appropriate use of split screens. Very nice Archiv material has its lengths, however. Could go more into detail about the process of making music
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rip nico pokochalabys tv republika
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Only movies from the 2020s this August challenge 🎞️
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I’m nodding along enthusiastically to descriptions of innovation and experimentation while being mildly irritated that those things were also used to make this documentary.
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Mmepmovies1 8 月 16, 2026
Every music documentary should interview an intense fan
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Lou Reed, el hombre que eres.
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comentários avulsos: o lou reed é muito sexy; esse filme é visualmente hipnotizante; os anos 60 tem uma baita alma; vu é do cacete
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la pick me underground un merit fer cançons tan bones ficantse heroina tots els dies q comencen per d
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we are the culture !! this was great
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Primeira banda a ter uma estética de verdade na minha opinião, em que você vê algo a mais além de musica, isso se deve muito pelo Andy Warhol é claro, mais pela personalidade e jeitos de cada integrante, cada um era único e gênio demais. Fico feliz que the velvet não tenha virado um sex pistols da vida pra ser propaganda de uma marca ou pessoa, Lou tirou Andy no momento certo e banda acabou no momento certo, fiquei genuinamente muito emocionada por saber que depois teve um show de reencontro com a formação original. Umas das maiores bandas de todos os tempos.
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John Cale’s accent ☕️🥰🩶🏠🏴
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be still my beating heart!
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Wow just wow and also Fuck hippies
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PP4rker_🦇 8 月 14, 2026
no no I don’t go to gay bars because I like MEN…I just go because the crowds are cool…that’s it
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Ddimitri 8 月 14, 2026
criterion challenge 13/52 — song and dance there will never be another velvet underground. dear god i love them so much, they’ve got their flaws tho lol loved the aesthetics but i do wish there was more information in the second half after the cale interview stops but it is what it is
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easily one of the best musical documentaries i’ve ever seen
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Basically a mocumentary
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“How to be elegant and how to be brittle.” I love how much space it gives to everyone, not just Lou. I love how loud it is. I love how strong a sense it gives of where this music came from, how at the end we get this long list of where everyone is and what they got up to, like LaMonte Young and Henry Flynt were in the band too. I love how uninterested it seems to be in…
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They weren’t lying about the 60’s
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What a beautiful story. I’m glad they played “Candy Says”.
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MMorgana 8 月 13, 2026
new york city really is one of the only two cities in the world
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crazy how much this influenced me as a teenager and the rest of my life probably
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i think i’m gonna die in this underground
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It’s good to know that cool people can actually come out of Long Island
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eu assisto essas coisinhas de artistas que eu gosto e eu sinto uma vontade tão meninil e pura de ser eles >< tipo como assim, qual o problema de usar óculos de sol a noite so pq eu quero ser cool e rebelde q nem o lou reed?
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The Velvet Underground was a band I wasn’t very familiar with despite my immense fandom for music, especially rock, so I wanted to watch this to learn more about them—and I definitely did. I still feel like there’s a lot more for me to discover, but as a documentary itself, I just wasn’t feeling it. There was so much being thrown at you throughout the film that I found myself feeling a little overwhelmed, especially coming in with very little…
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Lou Reed was the best worst person ever
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“…and you begin to realize that there are new places in sound that you could find a home”. Major FOMO. Imagine hearing The Velvet Underground for the first time again, oh my Goddd.
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From the director of Velvet Goldmine Todd Haynes this did not disappoint. Really captured the 60s avant garde scène. Seriously enjoyed the interesting framing of old clips. BUT could have been 2 hours longer tbh! Although it delved into each band member I needed MORE. Like John Cale’s solo career / as a producer. Like man produced The Stooges! I want insufferable level of knowledge on each of them. This was definitely a good start.
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movie is as freaky as the music man, its good stuff, I like it. jonathon Richmond could talk about the velvet underground for hours i think , hes just one of them you know.
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“Nico was in love with Lou. Andy was in love with Lou. Boys and girls, men and women, fell in love with him”.
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Such dull storytelling, over stylised to make up for it.
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WWill Murphy 8 月 11, 2026
Man these guys were nuts
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Watching this after binging all their albums was a treat, a shame to see how many people from this period have passed away at the end.
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I know hardly anything about the velvet underground and i don’t have a clue what was happening but I like
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“This love peace crap we hated that.” God I love the east coast scene of the era, most especially in contrast to the sound and culture on the west coast of the times. The Velvet Underground were so manufactured but they weren’t like it does a good job of showing the bands formation and their legacy post The Warhol album. The they were so opposite from what came before and even since they have such a lo-fi mellowness, outsider angst…
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wait i’m attracted to lou reed and john cale. hi, john waters. i need to go stream. droneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
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Lou Reed abrázame y dime qué todo estará bien
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like half of this entire documentary is about the first album and it was entirely valid for that
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Would give so much to dip my toes into this moment in time and experience that explosion of music n film
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achei desorganizado esse doc
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skip this and read just kids. way more entertaining and well rounded perspective on the NYC art scene/warhol. also shocked that oh sweet nothing never played- that’s their best song??
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CCecilia✮⋆˙ 8 月 10, 2026
convencida de que dios no me dejó vivir esa época porque si no sería muy poderosa (me tocó vivir la era milei lpm)
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THE VELVET UNDERGROUND ROUND 2. sim, amei tanto que decidi assistir de novo depois de horas limpando meu quarto.
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RIP lou & Nico
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sometimes the voice of an angel comes from satan
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There is so little context given for anything that happens in this and they don’t even mention that the band went on after Lou left until 1973?
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both the velvet underground and i hate hippies 🙂 also my biggest flex is sharing the same birthday with john cale
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Oottilie 8 月 9, 2026
john cale is indeed the greatest to ever do it!
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Stunning, influential and edited very well. Loud asf and has Nico’s rancid and haunting yet beautiful and stunning voice. Amazing doc
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Great documentary. I love the velvet underground. Probably the second most influential band behind the Beatles. Sometimes I sit and wonder why I’ve chosen to lie to myself my entire life.
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Mmarz ♡ 8 月 8, 2026
most interestingly edited documentary i’ve seen since
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So visceral, so interesting and so beautiful. Crazy how ahead of their time they were. And the doc is so well made and super inspiring
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No real qualms
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elektriskt
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Oohthankyou 8 月 8, 2026
How many people left? Oh, about half. We must have been good tonight!
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Maybe it’s one of those you had to be there things. Didn’t work for me on any level
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lou reed summa
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Started like “here are all the ways Lou reed was an abusive asshole, what a genius!”, but it was also much more exploratory of the broad and alternative New York art scene at the time which was very interesting. Quite beautiful use of archival footage and interviews.
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i once asked him why he wanted to play in gay nightclubs and he said “it’s just a cool group of people” filme lindo. o warhol foi sim revolucionario. o lou reed era foda. e vida longa ao john cale
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MMadeleine 8 月 6, 2026
This love and peace crap… we hated it… get real…
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After this nothing will be as good as this
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Sublime, la cagó. Amé mucho la direccion y el uso de las imágenes de archivo. Punto adicional por como ponían las canciones durante el documental y que no fueron egoístas en solo poner de The Velvet Underground & Nico. Y como dijo el gran Lou Reed respecto al cine: “I am anonymous and have forgotten myself. It is, as they say, a drug.”
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Holy fucking shit. The Velvet Underground and Jonas Mekas makes an absolute sense to me now.
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i will not take nico slander her voice is enchanting
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One of the best documentaries ever me thinks
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a very good time and a way to remind myself of the love I have not only for the band, but for what that specific moment in time brought to the culture itself.
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Wouldve actually enjoyed it if the music wasnt so loud and everyones voices so low. Couldnt hear a thing lou said the entire documentary Love the velvet underground tho
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Jjuliannahope 8 月 5, 2026
the blueprint…. i would give anything to attend the 1966 ptown concert
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“ all that peace and love shit, we hated that”
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Excellent example of how a music documentary should be made. Just let the music do the talking and dot sporadically some talking heads of people who have nothing to gain from sharing their opinions that were actually there. Also, it sounded absolutely incredible. Not hard when the source material is monumental but from a quality standpoint it was beautiful.
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Ssofia 8 月 5, 2026
Perfect
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I feel very lucky to be so inspired
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Eemilywart 8 月 5, 2026
I enjoyed the gloving segment
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Ddaph ☆ 8 月 5, 2026
noooo don’t leave the velvet underground you’re so sexy aha
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ya no hacen putos malos como lou reed….. o sí john cale es la maldita cabra
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Ssarah t 8 月 5, 2026
Todd haynes JE TAIME !
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„these people would understand me” exactly
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Eestrellitaespi 8 月 5, 2026
Good watch if you like The Velvet Underground
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Wonderful film in a way that only makes sense being in the same breath as the band it’s about.
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Absolutely perfect.
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I love this band for completely different reasons every 4 years or so, there were several moments when I was like “oh yeah, Todd Haynes nailed that feeling” Johnathan Richman’s love of this band is the heart of this movie. I might start saying things like “I have some errands to run, so I’ll meet you in like, three live versions of Sister Ray or so.” Note: the day we watched this, I annoyed Andrea when I brought home a…
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There’s a great story David Bowie tells about seeing The Velvet Underground on his first trip to the States in ’71. After a rip-roarin’ show he had a private audience with Lou Reed, gushing to the Hamlet of electricity about all his favorite VU songs. Some time goes by and he tells a friend about meeting Lou, only to discover Reed was no longer in the Velvets. Which Lou Reed did he see and hang out with? None other than…
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6 Things: 1. There’s a central hurdle to the film in that it was made about 8 years after the death of Lou Reed, so you only have archival footage from him. That’s oddly fitting tho, for Haynes, who’s other rock biopics all deal with the central subject as kind of a black hole. I’m Not There, Dylan as multiple disconnected personalities; Velvet Goldmine, the elusive Brian Slade; and Superstar, which oddly may get closer to its subject than all the…
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El multifacético cineasta independiente Todd Haynes hace gala del amor por la banda neoyorquina por excelencia, la que partió el mundo del rock n roll en más de dos partes, imponiendo un estilo musicial propio, sin dejarse llevar por la corriente más popular del momento, inspirando mucho antes de su tiempo el punk, el new wave, el goth rock, el glam, el psychobilly, entre otros. Juega con metraje de la época y relega muchas de las entrevistas a voces que…
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CCarl Patterson 1 月 23, 2022
I’d heard the songs and bought Banana back in the day but, not being a huge fan, this was only okay as a music documentary.
- 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.
- Director
- Todd Haynes
- Writer
- Todd Haynes
- Studio
- Motto Pictures, Polygram Entertainment, Verve Label Group, Killer Films
- Country
- USA
- Language
- English
- Year
- 2021
- Runtime
- 121 mins
- France07 Jul 2021
- USA03 Sep 2021
- Spain24 Sep 2021
- Switzerland26 Sep 2021
- USA30 Sep 2021
- USA03 Oct 2021
- UK08 Oct 2021
- France12 Oct 2021
- UK15 Oct 2021
- USA15 Oct 2021
- USA14 Oct 2021
- Netherlands15 Oct 2021
- Philippines15 Oct 2021
- UK15 Oct 2021
- United Arab Emirates15 Oct 2021
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