Clevercell Very disappointing...

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Cruentus I've been a Pixies music fan for years, but I never really knew much about the individual members. All I knew is that they inexplicably dropped off the face of the earth one day, and reappeared recently as middled aged people.This documentary makes it quite clear what happened. The individual band members are fragile, sensitive, flawed people, who made unbelievably unique and magical music when they were together. Unfortunately their fragility made it impossible for them to deal with their success.This film could have very easily taken the TV-style doc route with music industry producer and "expert" interviews, instead it just follows the band members around during their 2004 reunion tour. By showing Charles, Kim, Joe and Dave engaging in mundane everyday activities, we come to know them better than from any lecture delivered by a music "expert".Despite the fact that they never achieved any great commercial success during their heyday, the string of recent sold out tour dates proves that their music had a profound effect on millions of people worldwide.The Pixies now have a second chance to achieve the financial success that eluded them the first time around. Very few people in this life get a second chance at anything. I hope that they can achieve their financial goals, as well as finding the inner peace that they lacked in their younger years.I highly recommend this film to Pixie fans, new and old alike.

conannz This is like one of those longitudinal sociology studies. See Frank at 20 something - see Kim at 20 something - now see Frank at 41 etcetera.It seemed like during the reunion tour and all the way through the film that no band member had any real insights about what was going on. Perhaps some things are better felt than over analyzed.It was clear that lots of audiences really liked the reunion tour and that there is some "magic pixie dust" around the band. Even if it still seems a bit mysterious to outsiders.Music appears to be one of the few areas where you can relaunch a (product) band if they were ahead of their time / out of sync as Pixies seemed to be first time round.I enjoyed being able to check the phenomenon that was Pixies and see how things have changed / what might be different.I did see someone asking why there were no obvious outside commentators (pro & con) for the band. In my view that is what wikipedia and the web are good for and some of that can go on a DVD as a side bar.I think this film was good because it allowed us to get a glimpse into the music and the band without talking the subject to death.

SONNYK_USA Of the several ROCK-umetaries playing at this year's ROCKDOCS festival this one is undoubtedly the best. Due in part to the power of the band being profiled ("Pixies") and the expansive inside look presented by the filmmakers that details the individual member's lives inside and outside the band.It was said about the Beatles that each musician was excellent in his own right but when the four of them gathered together something 'magic' happened. This also applies to the Pixies and their relationships to each other, as they are ironically the four most uncommunicative people in the world when sitting backstage, but put them in front of an audience and you get an eruption of music and lyrical poetry that stays with you long after the concert has ended.Formed in 1986 by Charles Thompson (aka 'Black Francis'), the band achieved a modicum of success until in 1992 Thompson dissolved the band due to friction with co-lead singer Kim Deal (who also fronts 'The Breeders' w/ her sister). In the intervening years the band's music inspired dozens of other bands and became a cult phenomenon. Now some 12 years leader, Thompson has decided to put the Pixies back together and see if what they once had can be duplicated.Of course, the long years between have brought about a number of changes among the members, most notably the rehabilitation of Kim Deal's alcoholic problems. Although she still drinks alcohol-'free' beers by the dozen her recollection of the Pixies concert years are a haze and now she's forced to listen to their albums to recall the parts she played. She enlists her sister Kelly to join her for the tour to segregate herself from the band and any partying on the road. Kelly also proves useful as she likes to 'interview' other band members with extremely pointed questions offering quite a bit of comic relief.In addition to Kim, each member of the band has followed a strange road since the Pixies break-up with only Deal and Thompson able sustain solo careers in the interim. The documentary successfully brings all of their varied paths together within the framework of rehearsals, warm-up tours, and the inevitable European and USA venues with fan adulation escalating from one date to the next culminating at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC.Most poignant of the non-band stories is the movie is that of a teenage musician's adulation of Kim Deal and her gifting of the paperback book "Brave" to her idol. The novelette turned her on to the Pixies after they'd disappeared from the scene, but the music inspired her to form her own band. The end credits features the Pixies-wannabe's jamming in the basement and continuing the 'Pixies' legacy.This coda completes the circle started at the beginning of the film with Kurt Cobain's quote on how the Pixies were one of the bands that inspired Nirvana. In fact, Cobain said that Nirvana was trying to BE the Pixies.As you can see, if you're not a fan of this band now, I guarantee by the end of this film you'll be making a beeline to the nearest music store (as I did). So if you only make it to one movie at this year's festival, then let this be the one!

joshua-willis The film loudQUIETloud fails to be an effective documentary for several reasons. The first failure is that the filmmaker does nothing to justify the making of this documentary—the film is so devoid of background information or historical context that, for someone without extensive prior knowledge of the Pixies, there is nothing to suggest that the Pixies are important or interesting enough to merit documenting their comeback. The filmmaker makes the audacious claim that the Pixies are among the most influential bands of all-time, and maybe they are—but the film does nothing to prove this or show how or why they are influential. The opening quote from Nirvana's Kurt Cobain is the only time in the film where we are given a sense of the Pixies' impact on modern pop music. Where are the interviews with music historians, music critics, or other musicians that would validate and define the Pixies' influence? Where are the excerpts from Rolling Stone articles about the Pixies—during their heyday, their breakup, their absence, and their reunion? Surely if the Pixies were indeed 'one of the most influential bands of all-time,' then these secondary sources would be overflowing with information that the filmmaker could have used to place in the Pixies in the context of modern music for viewers who aren't already familiar. Yet there is not ONE secondary source interview, not one article quoted—the film consists entirely of interviews with band members, live concert footage, and interviews with the band's family and fans. In this way, loudQUIETloud feels like little more than a puff piece, a made-for-the-fans DVD of the tour released by the band itself. If you are looking for live concert footage of the Pixies, loudQUIETloud does just fine. If you are interested in a thought-provoking, intelligent documentary, loudQUIETloud falls flat on its face. I knew almost nothing about the Pixies before watching loudQUIETloud, and now having seen it, I still feel as though I know nothing about them. Why did the Pixies breakup? The documentary cites 'creative differences and tension,' a generic answer that could probably be used for hundreds of bands. Why did the Pixies get back together? The documentary cites money and 'it just feeling right' as the reasons for the reunion—again, these reasons are painfully dull and provide none of the insight that is the purpose of a good documentary. What is the title's significance? Other than my own inference that loudQUIETloud refers to the band's path from popularity to obscurity and back to popularity, I am given no other clues as to what the title is meant to mean. Most importantly, the film fails to answer the question of why the Pixies were significant and influential, and left me angry and frustrated that I had spent 90 minutes on what, from my perspective, might as well have been some random garage band.For the hardcore Pixies fan, loudQUIETloud may be sufferable since it gives viewers ample face-time with the band members themselves. However, for those who don't particularly know or care about the Pixies already, loudQUIETloud is among the most hopelessly ineffective documentaries I have ever seen.