Buena Vista Social Club: Adios [Audio: Spanish]

[A] thoughtful if somewhat scattered documentary ...

... Cuba's geriatric music troupe get a touching send-off in Lucy Walker's hagiographic but moving documentary.

The approach is pretty conventional, but the characters are so brilliant you'd struggle not to be swept up in it all.

After Adios, many longtime fans will want to chase the taste away with a stiff shot of the old stuff.

Despite any shackles, social or otherwise, music will always serve as a mode of liberation, an expression of love, and Buena Vista Social Club: Adios passionately asserts that idea.

Ultimately, Adios transcends politics and proves once again that music knows no boundaries.

Many will have wondered what happened to the veteran Cuban musicians profiled in Wim Wenders's 1998 cult classic, Buena Vista Social Club, and Lucy Walker provides some of the answers in this genial if fitful documentary sequel.

Adios feels both disorganized and unnecessary, like an encore staged after the house lights have gone up and most of the audience has exited the building.

Still, as nostalgia trips go - was 1999 almost two decades ago? - this offers a fairly even balance of news update, fan service and, as the title implies, a goodbye.

Emotional, crowd-pleasing sequel to popular documentary.

Unfortunately, Lucy Walker's "Buena Vista Social Club: Adios" plays more like a well-intentioned but unsatisfying addendum to Wenders' movie and Cooder's recording.

Adios is less engaging than Walker's earlier work, with little of the poeticism she displayed in Waste Land and The Crash Reel. It surely doesn't help that she's stuck picking through Wenders' leftovers ...