Sundance 2009: It Might Get Loud

A friend remarked to me that It Might Get Loud "has Paste written all over it," and sure enough it does seem to be up our alley. Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim, the director of An Inconvenient Truth, had the idea of bringing Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White together to talk about guitars. And, you know, if they felt the urge, to jam a little. The result is a film that works as a brief chronicle of each musician's life and career — chock full of old clips, photos, concert footage, recordings, and visits to pivotal locations — as well as a pile of guitar-related anecdotes and observations. The jam summit itself functions as mortar between the bricks.

Jimmy Page takes us through his first experiences with a guitar, through his early days as a studio musician, and up to the Yardbirds and Zepplin. The Edge talks eloquently about guitar gadgets and U2. And Jack White listens to a Son House recording and talks about fighting the instrument. White has the least personal history to draw on, but he's also the one most actively crafting his image, so he's a fascinating contrast to the other two. "My goal," he says early in the film, "is to trick these guys into teaching me all their tricks."

As you might expect from a project designed to be a historic, spontaneous event, it doesn't actually generate many real sparks. These guys have zero chemistry in the film, and Guggenheim's frequent attempts to craft unpremeditated discoveries — or convince us that he has — generally fall flat. Ironically, White says that audiences can tell when you're faking on stage, and I'd wager audiences in a movie theater can, too.

But It Might Get Loud is still great fun. Here's an example of what I mean: In a house somewhere, The Edge points to a box of old cassette tapes. "I have no idea what these are," he says, then pulls out one of the tapes and sticks it into a player. A minute later we're listening to an early recording of the opening guitar riff of "Where the Streets Have No Name." They had no idea what was on those tapes, see. Pure coincidence! And yet what fun it is to hear that riff (and hear Bono counting the odd time signature in the background) with Edge narrating.

My feeling of Guggenheim as a filmmaker, based on this and An Inconvenient Truth, is that he has such great material that his films stand up despite the often unnecessary shaping that he tries to apply. It Might Get Loud ends with the guys learning and playing "The Weight" on acoustic guitars. Whether it was planned or not, these three great performers are fun to watch.

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