Popular reviews

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  Review by Antonomasia ★★★★★ 1

  I have a theory that there is a stage of getting to know an artist when you gain greatest enjoyment from a music documentary: you've heard enough to know that you really really like them and their music, but you still have a wealth of material to unearth, and you haven't yet read much about their history - certainly not enough to get all querulous on the commentary's ass. This one-and-a-half-hour film about Scott Walker got me at exactly the right time.

  It could only help that this also featured interviews with celebrated heroes such as Jarvis and Damon and Alison Goldfrapp, and even half-forgotten ones like Cathal Coughlan (of Microdisney and The Fatima Mansions, for those who weren't avid…

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  Review by Graham Williamson ★★★★

  I mean, what else was I going to watch? Stephen Kijak's documentary is a deserving tribute to a unique genius, surely the only person to go from being part of an amiable boy band to furiously screaming about the execution of Mussolini's mistress over a backing of atonal strings and a side of pork being repeatedly punched. Unless Gary Barlow's career takes a serious left turn.

  It's thrilling how much time this devotes to the 'difficult' years, showing behind-the-scenes footage of Scott on the set of Leos Carax's Pola X (for which he composed the soundtrack) and in the studio recording The Drift. Most documentaries about musicians of this generation might casually note that they were still touring, recording, whatever,…

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  Review by Ben Nash ★★★★½ 1

  Aside from David Bowie, I can't think of a single musician who has had more of an impact on me than Scott Walker. Maybe I'll write something about this later, right now I'm still bereft of words. It feels like I've been punched in the stomach. I can't quite believe that he's gone. Farewell Orpheus. May you sing forever.

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  Review by Marvin Böhme ★★★½ 1

  Ein Mann des 30. Jahrhunderts, welcher im barocken Stile Nacht und Tag kontrollierte (vielleicht doch nicht so heftig, aber die Größe seiner Musik spricht Bände).

  Scott Walker (1943-2019), bürgerlich Scott Engel, ist für viele, die sich mit der Musik der 1960er auseinandersetzen, eher dem Status eines Enigmas aus den USA statt eines kommerziellen, Mainstream-artigen Künstlers wie die Beatles oder die Stones, zu verweisen.
  Zunächst mit Gary und John Walker (nicht wirkliche Brüder) als das Trio The Walker Brothers von 1964-1968 (zehn Jahre später eine Reunion) unterwegs, entschied er sich dazu, auch eigene Alben währenddessen aufzunehmen, weil er sich um die Kreativität in der Musik kümmerte und hatte... bescheidenen Erfolg. "Erfolg" definiert sich im Musikgeschäft auf Verkäufe und gut verkauft haben…

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  Review by Kirk

  Scott Walker, is a genius, a true one of a kind. I really wish the filmmaking reached that level.

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  Review by Craig J. Clark ★★★★ 3

  "Everything in my world is big. It's way out of proportion."

  The late Scott Walker was an unknown quantity to me until fairly recently, but I liked what I heard of his early recordings with the Walker Brothers and his first four solo albums. That was the extent of my exposure to his work, though, a circumstance I am now in the process of correcting, beginning with a long-overdue viewing of this essential documentary covering his erratic life and increasingly alienating music.

  Yesterday, my Twitter feed was full of people sharing their favorite Scott Walker performances. (Here's mine.) Its parallel in this film is the montage of musicians listening to songs from Scott, Scott 2, Scott 3, and Scott 4…

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  Review by oz87 ★★★½ 1

  Interesting story, sort of got less interesting nearer the end but that could of been because I got distracted by my super hot girlfriend wanting sexual intercourse during the film.

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  Review by Jesi Gaston ★★★★ 1

  imagining the guy who said he hated tilt listening to the drift or bish bosch for the first time and losing it

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  Review by Craig Duffy ★½

  As with the Chasing Trane doc about John Coltrane that came out a few years ago, this film suffers from bland filmmaking. Like Coltrane, Scott Walker is an extremely avant garden artist. So why doesn’t the filmmaking rise to meet its subject. I guess it could end up failing. I guess it could end up being like that Miles Davis biopic. But at least that film tried. It feels like this one wasn’t trying. It feels like once they got Walker to agree to talk on camera, they stopped.

  It’s nice getting to watch some of the music be created and of course it’s nice to hear the music, but it’s not enough.

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  Review by jamie o ★★★★★ 1

  Rewatched on ketamine with my best friend and now we're in a throuple with Scott Walker.

  Arguably the best music documentary ever given that I don't learn a single thing about the man himself and it's just giants like Eno, Goldfrapp, and Bowie listening to his music and saying "yeah that shit slaps." And there's meat punching.

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  Review by James Christopher Lawrence ★★★★½

  As far as modern singer songwriters go the term “genius” gets thrown about far too much. Any album that has a hint of nostalgia gets praised to the high heavens and then subsequently disappears into obscurity. Scott Walker is a man who’s genius allows him to dip in and out of the wilderness, creating foreboding modern masterpieces of the pop song.

  From his time in The Walker Brothers it was obvious that Scott’s creativity couldn’t be compressed into the 60’s, 2 minute long song, pop explosion. By the time Images was released The Walker Brothers time was over, picked up and dropped at the click of fingers. Scott took subsequent studio time and ran with it, using John Franz from…

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  Review by nora ★★½

  it's so fulfilling to watch people you idolize (david bowie, brian eno, jonny greenwood) nerd out over another person you idolize. every time i listen to scott walker's music i find something new to latch onto—he's top tier as far as i'm concerned. still feeling very sad about his passing, but grateful for all the art he created while he was still around.