It Might Get Loud

Hollywood Reporter - 06/30/2009
"IT MIGHT GET LOUD offers a thrilling personal tour of three exceptional electric guitarists' careers that equally appealing to musicians and rock enthusiasts alike."

Rolling Stone - 08/20/2009
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "Does this sound like rock heaven' It is."

A.V. Club - 08/13/2009
"A fan's love letter to the art of the six-string, Davis Guggenheim's documentary IT MIGHT GET LOUD convenes a summit of guitar gods from three generations..." -- Grade: B-

Entertainment Weekly - 08/21/2009
"A marvelous rock doc that manages to be wistful, tasty, and jam-kicking at the same time....Pure candy for the guitar hero in all of us." -- Grade: A

USA Today - 08/14/2009
3 stars out of 4 -- ?You don't have to be a musician to appreciate IT MIGHT GET LOUD....Though their individual stories are compelling, the best moments are when they interact, either verbally or musically.?

Los Angeles Times - 08/14/2009
"The film culminates as the three finally come together on an empty soundstage in Hollywood for a conversation and a raucous jam session that is remarkable for its intimacy and its passion."

New York Times - 08/19/2009
"It's a group portrait of three musicians and also, more intriguingly, a free-form historical and philosophical essay on the instrument that unites them."

Washington Post - 09/04/2009
?Guggenheim makes all this guitar/guitarist worship engagingly cinematic. One needn't have a Stratocaster moldering in the closet at home to get a kick out of IT MIGHT GET LOUD...?

Uncut - 01/26/2010
4 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's an engaging study of guitar heroism as a shared passion."

Empire - 01/01/2010
4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]eaming three of the world's most renowned axe-wielders: Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White. In separate strands, each tells his own story....There are great pleasures..."

Sight and Sound - 03/01/2010
"There are compelling moments dotted through the film..."

IT MIGHT GET LOUD is a slick documentary about three seminal guitarists from successive generations of rock royalty: Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, U2's the Edge, and the White Stripes/Raconteurs/Dead Weather's Jack White. The film follows the guitarists individually, in evocative settings like Headley Grange, the studio where "Stairway to Heaven" was written, and the Dublin high school where U2 first played together as teenagers. The three subjects sidestep music-biz gossip and open up about their influences, their approach to songcraft, and their aesthetic goals. Music lovers--guitar fanatics in particular--will thrill to some behind-the-scenes tech-talk as the artists explain how they get their respective sounds.

These fascinating individual interviews are intercut with impressionistic bits, animation, cool titles, mesmerizing vintage footage of the guitarists and their blues-singer heroes, and a round-robin jam featuring all three guitarists learning and playing each other's tunes. The live-music segments are at times awkward, as the men eye each other warily and shyly, seemingly unsure of how to interact. But when the music works--as it does on the trio's impromptu "Whole Lotta Love"--sparks fly and genuine smiles break out all over. Fortunately, these inspired moments outshine the clumsy onstage socializing, and viewers are left with the impression that these three very different masters have more in common than previously suspected.

Documentary | Guitarists | Music (General) | Musicians | Pop / Rock | Rock | Rock Bands | Rock Legends | Theatrical Release

Genre:

• Documentaries