This melancholic tribute to songwriter Townes Van Zandt feels like a wake held in a tavern. It is full of rich interviews with the songwriter’s friends, fellow musicians, former wives and, perhaps most poignantly, his four children. The film also features a wealth of footage, including recorded conversations, home movies and videos, and earlier film projects made about the songwriter. At times impressionistic, the film symbolically returns to Van Zandt the memories he lost due to shock treatments performed on him as a young adult. His loved ones oscillate between acceptance of and disappointment in his brilliance and craziness. Rightly, his sparse, sorrowful songs are given a great deal of time and space in the film, which is really an occasion for listening closely—for the first or the forty-fifth time—to his music.  RH