Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

James McNally Director Sam Jones follows the band Wilco as they record their fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Along the way, original member Jay Bennett is fired, and the band are dropped by Reprise Records. With their completed album in hand, they are forced to shop it around to other labels for almost another year. This is a close-up view of a group of highly talented and creative people in the crucible, being ground down by the business side of the music industry, even as they are making the most ambitious music of their lives.

askmike-info A film which is all about the best album of 2002, Sam Jones tells the story of the making of the Wilco album `Yankee Hotel Foxtrot'. Jones had no idea that in the making of this film, Wilco would fire a band member, be dropped by the record label, spend the next year looking for a new label (the joy of this story is that both label were owned by AOL-Time Warner, who essentially paid Wilco for the same album twice), and make one of the greatest albums of the last 3 years. But that's the beauty of this documentary: what begins as a simple story keeps getting tangled up to form one of the best rockumentaries ever made.

tomnservo This is a movie about the making of a unique piece of music; an album which is already legendary for the wilderness of idiocy it traveled through on its way to release.To keep this brief, the movie contains great out-takes from the album as well as an interesting picture of how a recording band acts. But also, the film lacks any real organization and it's as if the director assumed the viewer was already aware of the events around "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," because he focused much more on the story of Jeff Tweedy making music. But criticism aside, it's a very interesting movie. And I don't know what Alex- 105 meant by Jay "just being fired" because that was one of the most elaborated upon points in the movie. Remember, Alex? The ten minute scene where Jay won't drop the fact that Jeff wasn't specific about a drum loop and Jeff ends up vomiting because of all the stress. I'd say most people saw the firing coming.

Robert B I went into this film with expectations, from the hype, that it would be insightful and uplifting. Certainly something more than a cheap promotional for the band "Wilco."Instead we get a lot of moping and whining about "the process," a dishonorable and no doubt one-sided portrayal of one band members who was kicked out by the prima donna lead singer/songwriter, a gut-wrenching confession by the fallen member's friend -- for like 18 years -- saying the "friendship had run its course," and this whiny, uncompelling story about how one record label "hurt their feelings" by dumping them, only so that the band could immediately get 50 offers from other labels (oh, the tension...not!) They tried their best to make it look like it was a strain, but I suspect it was all smoke and mirrors to generate a tragedy that didn't exist. This doesn't even take into account the long stretches where we get many of their newest songs shoved at us in full without any storyline, insight or even a decent job at cinematography. The strained attempts at emotional sincerity or reasonable perspective on life made me sick to watch.From the film, this band sounds like a bunch of vile little babies who poke around to find a voice they don't have and think they're some kind of guardians for the art of music, which they most definitely are not. And I thought the music sucked, and I couldn't even understand the lyrics due to the mumbling style of the lead singer. I give it a 2/10.