Nico Icon

At one point during this enervating biographical documentary, an interview subject says something along the lines of "There was nothing to talk to Nico about, because Nico didn't have any opinions about anything." And that's the problem with the film, in a nutshell--essentially, it's a portrait of a vacuum, and however ably it may have been assembled, it still fails to provide us with much insight into the life of a woman whose fame (as a singer/model, most notably contributing to The Velvet Underground's debut album) was largely accidental and whose talent was frankly rather dubious. The valuable archival footage that director Susanne Ofteringer incorporates only makes matters worse, since the glimpses we get of Andy Warhol's Factory and the Velvet Underground are far more interesting than the film's subject proper. Compared to, say, Terry Zwigoff's astonishing portrayal of Robert Crumb--an icon with an agile mind and an idiosyncratic point of view--it's a particular disappointment. Not recommended. (M. D'Angelo)