Has stylish cinematography, terrific sound editing and other solid production values, but it suffers from excessive style over substance...It leaves you feeling unenlightened and, ultimately, undewhelmed.
It Might Get Loud (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:85
Fresh:66
Rotten:19
Average Rating:7/10
Consensus: An affectionate tribute to rock's most distinctive instrument, It Might Get Loud is insightful and musically satisfying.
Rated: PG [See Full Rating] for mild thematic elements, brief language and smoking.
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
Theatrical Release:Aug 14, 2009 Limited
Box Office: $1,234,300
Synopsis:
Who hasn't wanted to be a rock star, join a band or play electric guitar? Music resonates, moves and inspires us. Strummed through the fingers of The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White, somehow it...
Who hasn't wanted to be a rock star, join a band or play electric guitar? Music resonates, moves and inspires us. Strummed through the fingers of The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White, somehow it does more. Such is the premise of It Might Get Loud, a new documentary conceived by producer Thomas Tull.
It Might Get Loud isn't like any other rock'n roll documentary. Filmed through the eyes of three virtuosos from three different generations, audiences get up close and personal, discovering how a furniture upholsterer from Detroit, a studio musician and painter from London and a seventeen-year-old Dublin schoolboy, each used the electric guitar to develop their unique sound and rise to the pantheon of superstar. Rare discussions are provoked as we travel with Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White to influential locations of their pasts. Born from the experience is intimate access to the creative genesis of each legend, such as Link Wray's "Rumble’s" searing impression upon Jimmy Page, who surprises audiences with an impromptu air guitar performance. But that's only the beginning.
While each guitarist describes his own musical rebellion, a rock'n roll summit is being arranged. Set on an empty soundstage, the musicians come together, crank up the amps and play. They also share their influences, swap stories, and teach each other songs. During the summit Page’s double-neck guitar, The Edge’s array of effects pedals and White’s new mic, custom built into his guitar, go live. The musical journey is joined by visual grandeur too. We see the stone halls of Headley Grange where "Stairway to Heaven" was composed, visit a haunting Tennessee farmhouse where Jack White writes a song on-camera, and eavesdrop inside the dimly lit Dublin studio where The Edge lays down initial guitar tracks for U2’s forthcoming single. The images, like the stories, will linger in the mind long after the reverb fades.
It Might Get Loud might not affect how you play guitar, but it will change how you listen. The film is directed and produced by An Inconvenient Truth's Davis Guggenheim, and produced by Thomas Tull, Lesley Chilcott and Peter Afterman.
Page --© Official Site
Starring: Jimmy Page, Edge, Jack White
Starring: Jimmy Page, Edge, Jack White
Director: Davis Guggenheim
Director: Davis Guggenheim
Producer: Thomas Tull, Lesley Chilcott, Peter Afterman, Davis Guggenheim
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
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Reviews for It Might Get Loud
...(W)e except a sonic summit of Olympian proportions. What we get instead are three slight biographies followed by sequences that merely suggest what such a coming together could actually achieve.
Davis Guggenheim's contrived documentary is a largely unrewarding essay on the mystique of the ubiquitous electric guitar...
Nearly two hours of yackety-yak is less expressive than one image of White's hand bleeding from the intensity of pressing his guitar strings during a mad improvisation.
It cannot be said that any member of this trio is the most gifted conversationalist known to man. In fact, once pleasantries are out of the way, they barely have anything of note to say to one another.
The trouble is, once you get past the historical information and chummy interviews, you have to put up with the inevitable risk of any ad-hoc jam session: It Might Get Boring.
The film's very title is a tease, however: It never gets all that loud, and you might doze off after 30 minutes of watching this unwieldy power trio.
Why isn’t the film better? Guggenheim doesn’t seem to have prodded his subjects in any interesting directions.
No self-respecting Led Zeppelin fan could hate a movie that contains extended interviews with Jimmy Page. But that can't change the fact that It Might Get Loud is an empty exercise.
[O]nly occasionally turns the volume up beyond fanboy adulation. . [and] the guitar gods never get off their thrones.
It Might Get Loud doesn't really offer enough comparative analysis to lead to a fully educated guess about why such passionate players are so awkward and reserved with each other when given a chance to measure their skills against the best.
While that sounds like a fantasy for rock aficionados, the scenes lack dramatic tension or cinematic enlightenment. It just kind of happens, and then the all-star jam fades to black, leaving few remnants of the filmmakers' initial intentions.
For those who play the instrument, watch this film and learn something about the guitar. As for the rest%u2014listen to the CDs.
Listening to rock gods speak about their music isn't nearly as enjoyable as listening to them play it.
Even longtime music fans are bound to pick up a fresh fact or two. But if you really want to enjoy this music, close your door, crank up a CD and whip out that air guitar.
This movie has no raison d'être. The disjointed editing and shallow interviewing doesn't tell enough about any of the three to learn what makes them tick.
This is not a history of rock 'n' roll guitar. It's a movie-fantasy version of the "favorite music" section on Guggenheim’s Facebook page.
A must-see for axe players, the movie is not terribly concerned with history. Still, its design is smarter than you realise.
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| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 77% 77% | The Hangover |
| 88% 88% | Inglourious Basterds |
| 66% 66% | Public Enemies |
| 24% 24% | G-Force |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 90% 90% | District 9 |
| 86% 86% | 500 Days of Summer |
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| 06% 06% | All About Steve |
| 78% 78% | It Might Get Loud |
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