As a documentary it's not particularly striking, but the subject is of course engrossing.

One of those artists who got a too close to the darkness and stayed there a little too long - spookily enough, at one point I remarked to a friend that he reminded me of Van Gogh, and two minutes later Van Zandt himself makes the same comparison.

Oh Townes...I wanted to give this higher than a 75. I just can't do it. I have a rule...if I fall asleep watching a movie in the middle of the afternoon, I can't go higher than a 75. Too bad, because I think there's a more raucous and ramshackle way to presenting the life story of an iconic musical outsider, rather than the usual talking heads and short film clips. A squandered opportunity, to be sure.