A good sign of the vitality of rock music at any given period can be found in its documentary movies — look back at the 1970s and '80s, and almost all the rock docs on offer were contemporary. Whether it was hippie "Woodstock," punk "Rude Boy," "The Last Waltz" or "Stop Making Sense," these films sought to capture bands and scenes in the present tense. These days it's all about history. That may be a sign of the overall disposability and lack of new directions in rock nowadays, or it could be that because bands live so publicly online now — through websites, social networks, videos and streaming — that the documentary film is no longer needed. Take your pick.
"LennoNYC" is yet another foray into the life of the most talented and tragic member of The Beatles, John Lennon. This doc covers the final decade of Lennon's life, beginning in 1971. London had become unbearable, as Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, were besieged by a press corps that blamed Ono for breaking up The Beatles. So the couple fled to the relative anonymity of NYC, where a brief period of intense political activism was curtailed when President Richard Nixon tried to get the singer deported, resulting in a lengthy courtroom battle. (This has already been covered well by "The U.S. vs. John Lennon.")
The film is good at roping in the musicians who worked with Lennon throughout the decade, from the East Village group Elephant's Memory through members of the Plastic Ono Band. Lennon's passage through solo success ("Imagine"), failure ("Some Time in New York City") and eventual withdrawal from the public eye (1975-1980) are all covered ably, along with the recording of his final album, "Double Fantasy," shortly before being gunned down by a deranged fan in 1980.