Scott Walker: 30 Century Man

A fine new rock documentary.

Director Stephen Kijak previously made the documentary "Cinemania," about a group of obsessive moviegoers, and it comes across here that Walker (born Noel Scott Engel) and his acolytes might best be described not by that distasteful word "hipster" but rather by the more dignified "connoisseur." These are people of discerning taste.

From the increasingly experimental solo records that followed, and Walker's subsequent reputation as a reclusive genius and cult figure, you'd expect the subject of Stephen Kijak's documentary to be a forbidding, pretentious artiste--and the pleasant surprise of Kijak's film is that he's anything but.

Longtime fans of Walker's warm, sepulchral baritone, startlingly evocative songwriting and lushly imaginative instrumentation will rejoice at this revealing documentary.

Presented as a straight documentary about an American pop singer who had one U.K. hit in the 1960s as a member of a boy band and has gone missing ever since, but it plays like the slyest of spoofs.

Walker forged an out-of-time mystique that is vividly captured here.

Glosses over the depression and alcoholism that have bedeviled Walker as well as any relationships he might have had. But that doesn't make the film any less interesting.