I was Edmund Kean firstly i'm a huge wilco fan and therefore was always going to like this, even if it was directed by michael bay and shot on a ninety eighties camcorder. It has fantastic footage that allows you to get into the 'wilco world' and generally made me very jealous.however i don't believe sam jones has any clout as a film maker. The biggest flaw seems to be that it doesn't get what yankee hotel foxtrot really is as an album. Even in the commentary Jeff Tweedy shows his surprise at jones' inclusion of live versions of songs from earlier albums like 'being there'.The big problem is that the album clearly changed a great deal after mr bennett left the band and jim o rourke turned a collection of good and slightly less than good rock songs into a ground-breaking piece of rock and roll. O rourke made the album great, hearing the versions that were painstakingly put together before Jim came on board proves this and yet Jones failed to make him a central part of the doc, relagated him to one joint interview with Jeff Tweedy when he says nothing.Unfortunately this film only tells half the story and therefore feels half-finished and padded out with lots of material that could have been put on the, already very healthy, special features discs. Having said all this it is still worth watching but not worth worshipping, a bit like yankee hotel foxtrot (unless you're listening to it on vinyl of course!).

mattschrock I'm a big fan of Wilco, just west of Toronto and had not heard about this movie until Dec.23. Needless to say I got my brother to buy it for me for xmas and ripped it open and thoroughly enjoyed this dvd. Maybe because it is Wilco, but Sam Jones got lucky with a nice story between a bunch of corporate idiots and a group of talented musicians and came out with a great doc.

ejwells Fascinating documentary focuses on Wilco recording "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," the album that caused them to be released from their record contract, only to be picked up by a subsidiary of the same label that fired them. The album (which they were already paid for by former label Reprise) becomes their biggest seller ever. Gives you a "fly on the wall" look into the conflicts between Wilco top guns Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett, which resulted in Bennett leaving the band. Great studio footage, cool live band stuff, and some less compelling live Tweedy solo performances. That fact that this story unfolded LITERALLY in front of first time director Sam Jones' eyes is pretty amazing. Talk about being in the right place at the right time (for the sake of the film, that is). Maybe the band will be better off without Bennett? Who knows. I'd think this film would easily hold the interest of those not familiar with the band, but will be very special for those familiar with the unique, uncomprimising approach of these alt. country pioneers. 4 stars.

MitchellXL5 I can't see anyone who isn't a Wilco fan finding this that interesting, though I would recommend it to anyone who is curious just for the music. There's a lot of great music in here, and the footage of the earlier stages of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot shows the how lovely all the songs are on that album, in the early stages and in their current form. And while I would agree that the film does hinge on hero worship, it doesn't make the portrayal of band dynamics less interesting to a fan. The fact is, it became obvious to me before the Heavy Metal Drummer scene that Jay Bennett is an enormously talented but really really grating, brow beating individual who is very hard to work with. I also think that after several decades, people should get over the fact that rock and roll isn't a communist collective, most bands have one or two figureheads, or centers to the wheel as Tweedy would have it, and that's just part of the bargain of being in a band. If Bennett ever thought that he was equal to Tweedy in Wilco, then it's an example of the fishbowl he put himself in. Here on the outside, it's always appeared to be Tweedy's band and it's always seemed to work that way. The after interviews with Bennett betray his ego and miscomprehension of his role. Maybe that's Tweedy's fault for never expressing it well. It seemed to me like everyone in the band was just sick of the guy. Equally, the manager's job isn't to question Tweedy's moral processes, his job is to serve the interests of Wilco, and he seems to do it well. He actually seems to put the band before the business in many ways and that's good for the band. So, sure, the movie is one-sided, and it could be a much better, much more insightful movie, but just because it is one sided, I don't think that means that the one side is always wrong about everything. And Jay Bennett makes some correct points, too. But that's just life. The film may be in stark black and white, but we all know that life is really gray, it's just Sam Jones hasn't realized it yet.