Early reviews for IT MIGHT GET LOUD

A few weeks ago I previewed upcoming music docs at the Toronto International Film Festival. Getting much of the attention is the new film that hails rock guitars heros. It Might Get Loud , by Davis Guggenheim, director of the Al Gore doc “An Inconvenient Truth,” profiles the sound of strumming through Jimmy Page, the Edge and the White Stripes’ Jack White. Scatterolight, mostly a U2 fan blog, and Mad Hatter, a movie guy, gush over the legends who showed up in Toronto. Early reviews,though, are somewhat mixed. Twitch, a film site, call the “love letter to the electric guitar” as the three distinct artists tell stories of their own musical journeys. It says:

Much more interesting are the sequences with The Edge and Page, both of whom have spent the bulk of their careers hugely overshadowed by larger-than-life vocalists being given the chance to talk about themselves and their craft in their own words, with scarcely a mention of their respective front men….also fascinating are the sequences are the scene in which the trio sit to jam together, each of them taking a turn to show off a favorite riff, to teach one of their songs to the others…when Page steps up and hits the opening notes of Whole Lotta Love both The Edge and White visibly struggle to keep themselves from cracking up like a couple of star struck kids. Yes, as much as they’ve accomplished they’re both still fans first.

But the Eye Weekly says the film veers closely to “Nigel Tufnel territory.” (Meow!) Mark Olsen of the LA Times also laments the film, while having some great jamming and insight to Jimmy Page, doesn’t hold together.

Guggenheim has chosen to shoot the film in a sort of epic portraiture style reminiscent of the photography of Annie Leibovitz, but that only serves to highlight the stunted strangeness of the situations, and make the film seem somehow phony even as the participants are trying to explain themselves honestly.

One of our folks at VH1 was expected to see the film so I’ll get the full skinny from her when she returns. No clips on the Net yet.