Neil Young: Coastal

It's terrific... Daryl Hannah is a very gifted director.

The only thing that “Coastal” manages to accomplish is something that I would have usually thought impossible—it makes him come across as a bore.

[Hannah] somehow takes one of the most interesting men in rock and turns him into a figure with all the substance of a cardboard cut-out ordered on the cheap.

The documentary could have used a little more excitement, but “Coastal” leaves us with a lingering notion that we’ve seen something special.

It's way, way more interesting when Young is on stage than when he’s off it.

"The mellowest of hangout movies. I found myself admiring its cozy willingness to be boring.”

Coastal isn’t going to convert a bunch of new fans to the ways of Neil, and even long-time supporters might wish for a bit more action and possibly a few different songs.

Non-fans may get a bit bored watching Young josh with his tour bus driver, but Young-ophiles will feel that the film, and his career, are, to quote a Crazy Horse song he sings, “A Dream That Can Last."

Young’s stature has archived their career quite so thoroughly in audiovisual terms, with results that are sometimes good-to-terrific, sometimes just, well, “for fans only,” to put it politely. Coastal falls into that latter camp.

While tour bus natter ranges from the roadside burial of a dead mouse to Howard Hughes’ aviation experiments... Young’s thoughts repeatedly return to the music he is playing on this tour.