The Velvet Underground – 8

Directorially brilliant, Todd Haynes’s portrait of the seminal punk rock group packs the wallop of the Velvets’ best music. He mixes archival footage from the era with wonderful modern interviews, all the while explaining how their songs came to be and, best of all, how they sounded. Like many, I knew three or four of their songs and was vaguely aware of their Warhol connection; so this was an education about a time and place–a scene–similar to the world of Patti Smith’s Just Kids. The movie pounded just as hard, fast and wild as a show at Max’s Kansas City.