It Might Get Loud

Review

Just to be honest, when I first heard of INCONVINIENT TRUTH’s Davis Guggenheim’s second documentary, IT MIGHT GET LOUD, I was not all that interested. The idea seemed interesting, but the trailer made it seem like it was a very music oriented film. No, no, I don’t hate music nor do I have anything against music based films. It’s just sometimes, music-based films, tend to focus on technically oriented details of making music. Either that, or it’s your typical ‘life of a rock star’ type thing. Well, IT MIGHT GET LOUD has some of those two elements, but the film explores a process that transcends merely the medium of music.

The basic premise of IT MIGHT GET LOUD is to explore the relationships of three very famous, very successful guitarists and their instrument of choice, the guitar. The film features Jack White, of the White Stripes and the Raconteurs, together with U2’s David Howell “The Edge” Evans and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. Each musician represents a very distinguished style that is his own. One of the things that make the film works really well is exactly that. The three guitarists different approaches to music their personal characteristics interact really well together. They present interesting contrasts to each other, keeping the flow of thoughts in the film interesting.

Jack White, being the youngest of the three, prefers to simplify, restricting the use of electronics, and revisits blues. The Edge’s method is at the complete opposite spectrum of White’s, as he is obsessed with modifying the original sound of a guitar with various sound-altering gadgetry. Meanwhile, Jimmy Page, surprisingly, is the man who has done everything that his trade has to offer.

Oh. There’s also a little kid who follows Jack White around, introduced as Jack White age 9 at the beginning of the film. He never really serves any purpose in the film, almost acting like a prop to White’s shenanigans in the film.

IT MIGHT GET LOUD is gorgeous. Shot by Guillermo Navarro the film combines the use of both video and film footages. Navarro, who is famous for being PAN LABYRINTH’s Guillermo del Torro’s sidekick, brings a sense of visuals that achingly his. The film, being a documentary, was inevitably shot by multiple people throughout its making. However, the film still successfully maintains a quiet, cold, romantic look. For certain parts of the film, Guggenheim also uses simple but very cute animated sequences. The animated sequences usually accompany White’s stories about his past. Meanwhile the other two musicians get moodier, more abstract poetic footages to accompany their narratives.

The film eventually evolves into an exploration of the creative process. The Edge, White and Page all get to talk about things that matter to them, and how they influence them as creators. For the most part, the movie focuses on the pasts of these guitarists. Things they’ve done, things that make them do the things that they do now, et cetera. The actual filmed conversation that supposedly ties the three stories together feels rather ineffective a lot of the times, as the dialogue unfortunately often turns into superficial banter. It’s nice, but it leaves the film with hardly any real conflicts. It’s kind of sucks too, because the conversation could easily become more insightful, but instead it falls on the too casual. Often times the narrative flow feels like it meanders. Thankfully, the three characters are interesting enough to keep it all together. Seriously. There are moments in the film where the banter gets a bit dreary and indulgent, but heck, the film is about rockstars talking about themselves, kind of expected right?

One thing that bothers me a lot with these rockstar stories is the glorification of, well, the rockstar. The film has some of that, but again, the three musicians are surprisingly humble and sincere that you kind of don’t mind the idea of putting these three guys up in a pedestal.

IT MIGHT GET LOUD, in the end, is really a film that’s specifically about the three musicians that it feature. Each of them has a fair share of the movie and by the end of the film you’ll have a very strong sense of the three. It’s a nice film, but not something that I would rave about. In a lot of ways, it’s a very expected step from Guggenheim after a massive story like INCONVINIENT TRUTH. IT MIGHT GET LOUD takes a rather intimate look at three rather known musicians and their relationship with the process of creation.

Check it, not check it, either way it’s no big deal. But if you actually like any of the three musicians, it’s probably a must. Oh, yeah and if you’re one of those creative types who like to make things too, cause it’ll definitely give you some much needed insight into the idea of the creative process.

Originally written for IN*TANDEM Magazine.