A Package for Fans
Over the past year, The National have quickly become one of my favorite bands. I was very excited about this film and EP and was not disappointed. The Virginia EP included b-sides and demos from Boxer, which were very enjoyable. The film, however, may not be enjoyed by everyone. It seems more like an art film than a documentary, which was fine with me. If you like David Lynch movies, you will like A Skin, A Night.

A waste of money and time
Do not buy this "film" if:

1.You hope to see complete performances by The National.

2.You like to watch interviews that aren't drowned out by other sounds.

3.You enjoy quality audio/video recordings.

I really love The National, but this was horrible. There are no extras on the DVD either.

a Diehard must!
I am a huge National fan. have met the band, drank with the band, watched the band more times then i can remember and so i say this . . . unless you're a huge fan of this band, do not get this CD/DVD. it's quite mundane and the music is subtle. 3 of the B-sides that are available on this CD are also available on others that you can get form iTunes or Amazon. the other 'unreleased' songs are not quite up to par as compared to the songs from Boxer, but like i said, if you are a huge fan/audiophile, then you will enjoy this package/songs.

The DVD is purely a montage of the making of the Boxer album and blurred, artsy snippets of the recording sessions and travel as done by the band while making the album. It is very cool to see how the recording process takes place, but it is fairly predictable. It's kinda like U2's Rattle and Hum, but completely the opposite.

If you're a huge National Fan or simply a big fan of lo-fi indie music and/or the making of . . . this will be a great buy.

If you love crazy camera work and empty NYC scenes, buy this
If you love The National, you should buy it too...but only for the EP. The DVD is absolutely terrible and a waste of an hour.

Vincent Moon is trying desperately to make The National a legend. It's almost like he's hoping either the lead singer will die early or the band will become really famous eventually, and he can claim dibs on their first documentary. Moon does the right thing in bringing the music to the forefront, but it hurts the interviews, which I could barely hear or understand. Tons of time is wasted on meaningless scenes of NYC or nearly empty rooms. They hyper saturated color is annoying to watch. No one is as dramatic as Moon makes The National out to be. It's absolutely dreadful as a rock doc, a film, and a document of recording one of the great albums of 2007.

Moon should have watched "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" to learn how to make a movie about making a great album.

This really was a waste of my time
I really love The National which is why i sat through this video. This disjointed amature film is irredeemable. Seriously this is what I imagine art school hell is like. At the very end of it I thought we would get to see the national perform "about today" which is 80% true. Vincent Price decided to start filming them on stage, then decides to take an illuminating walk to backstage where the real grit is happening i.e. the caterers are cleaning up. A REAL CINEMA VERITE. Look at the cover artwork for this dvd. NOW IMAGINE IT FOR ONE HOUR AND A HALF. Hynotic? Interesting? Gritty? Compelling? the answer is no. At some point I watched it on doublespeed which was not that different than single speed.This film makes matt berringer out to be a sad proto-alcoholic. I am pretty sure that's his wife in the background who helped him write two songs off of boxer but she isn't mentioned. I mean I'm sure writing and creating an album is kind of dull, this film makes the process unwatchable. You learn nothing from this film. The beginning of this film starts out with matt complaining that the director has a lot of "power" over his subjects, which I am pretty sure any reality television star tells his director but then it's edited out of any Real Wives of Orange County because that point is probably too TRITE for even them.