Really Surprised!

Must See Movie...

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

If you didn't know about the pixies, this isn't your chance to find out more and that's a good thing. Why? Well if you didn't discover their greatness on your own, which is the only way you could do it back in the day really, this film will not convince you of that, only being a fan of their music will.This review is not directed at anyone in particular's review on this film but, you're COMPLETELY missing the point if you watch this film with your arms folded, in order to be proved that this was and still is a great band in Alternative music's history. You want to know more about them? Well, that's what the internet is for and you can research any information you want.A completely necessary viewing by any Pixies fan. Lots of live footage. Candid remarks and statements by the band and in particular the band member's own views on it's later meltdown. And I love the end when they show some home movies of the band in slow motion, it looks like when they were on tour for Doolittle in 1989. The DVD contains footage not seen on TV like Kim Deal and Frank Black visiting Sigur Ros in their studio in Iceland.

The Pixies are a real phenomenon in the history of rock. While they were young in the 80s and beginning of the 90s they did not enjoy too much success, and it can be said that their legend and influence started to build only at the moment when they split. Twelve years later, in 2004 they decided to get back together after a series of individual failures that seemed to bring all of them on the brink of personal and financial bankruptcy. The film tells very little about their first period of activity and focuses on Act 2 of their career.It is not that it tells too much we do not know from the music of the group. The Pixies are great musicians, decent human being and poor communicators. We do not learn from the documentary too much about the sources of their music, we do not understand why despite the success of their second career and despite of them writing music for their individual careers there was and there is no new album since they reunited. We learn something about their personal lives, but frankly speaking what we hear is not interesting or revealing. Music remains the best part of this film.

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.

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.