Todd Haynes' documentary about the Velvet Undergrounds is a perfect match between creator and subject. The Velvet Underground are one of a small handful of bands that you remember hearing for the first time and asking,  "Who is this?" They don't sound like anyone else. A trick that they have continued to pull off ever since. Todd Haynes is a similar iconoclast. I think my first exposure to his films was Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, a short film about the tragic life of the 70s singer told entirely with Barbie and Ken dolls. Who comes up with that? And calibrates everything to make it work when it could have been a disaster. The band the Velvet Underground by all accounts could have been a disaster too, but things that seem to be on the verge of failing are so much more compelling when they succeed. Todd Haynes commands the screen in this film in a way I can't remember seeing in a while. He splits it down the middle, chops into squares, and throws exactly enough colour and light at his subjects. And no more.