Parents' Guide to The Velvet Underground

Many music documentaries follow a tired, talking-head formula, but filmmaker Todd Haynes refreshingly crafts this movie as its own work of art, inspired by the title band's unique creative vision. Haynes, whose previous movies have touched on The Carpenters and Bob Dylan, as well as fictional versions of David Bowie and Iggy Pop, clearly knows his music, and The Velvet Underground is both an appreciation of a great band and an explanation (hopefully accessible to newcomers) of why they were great. He uses amazing footage shot by Andy Warhol and others, plus voice recordings of Reed, Morrison, and Nico, all of whom have passed away. Haynes juxtaposes images in split screens and at certain points even divides the screen into 12 boxes, creating an artistic edge, a slight challenge to viewers' perceptions.

Cale is a wonderful interviewee, brilliantly explaining how the band's sound emerged and providing a center to the movie. Tucker explains her role as keeping the beat while Reed and Cale went off into an exploratory improvisation, so that she could "be there when they got back." Haynes includes early versions of songs to show how they evolved. The movie also interviews uber-fan Jonathan Richman, who saw the Velvets 60 to 70 times and then became a musician and formed his own band (The Modern Lovers) under Morrison's tutelage. Richman also provides some essential insights; he describes audiences being "hypnotized" by the music, remaining silent for a full five seconds after the end of a song. The Velvet Underground itself may or may not be hypnotic, but it helps place this great band in their historical context in a powerful way.