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It Might Get Loud
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 10 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Documentary | Musical
Written by:
Directed by: Davis Guggenheim
Release Date:
Theatrical: August 14, 2009
DVD: December 22, 2009
Running Time: 97 minutes, Black and White | Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG for mild thematic elements, brief language and smoking
Starring the Edge, Jimmy Page, and Jack White
Rarely can a film penetrate the glamorous surface of rock legends. It Might Get Loud tells the personal stories, in their own words, of three generations of electric guitar virtuosos – The Edge (U2), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and Jack White (The White Stripes). It reveals how each developed his unique sound and style of playing favorite instruments, guitars both found and invented. Concentrating on the artist’s musical rebellion, traveling with him to influential locations, provoking rare discussion as to how and why he writes and plays, this film lets you witness intimate moments and hear new music from each artist. The movie revolves around a day when Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge first met and sat down together to share their stories, teach and play. (Sony Classics)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The Hollywood Reporter Justin Lowe
It Might Get Loud offers a thrilling personal tour of three exceptional electric guitarists' careers that's equally appealing to musicians and rock enthusiasts alike.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
A marvelous rock doc that manages to be wistful, tasty, and jam-kicking at the same time.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
You'll never see a more tactile expression of the intimacy between artists and their instruments than in Davis Guggenheim's elating It Might Get Loud.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Robert Wilonsky
It's Page, a joyful instructor and natural storyteller, who steals the spotlight (Robert who? More, please.) Only real complaint: The movie's not loud enough. They should have turned that f***er up to 11.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey
In nearly every moment, an incredibly rich mix of their music, groundbreaking, defining, which alone would almost be enough. That It Might Get Loud comes with a righteous story too is a lovely bonus.
Read Full Review >St. Louis Post-Dispatch Kevin C. Johnson
Davis Guggenheim, the St. Louis director who won an Oscar for "An Inconvenient Truth," mines less controversial material this time around.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Each man has his own distinctive style, and yet when they jam together it sounds like the most natural thing in the world.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
For rock geeks of any age or taste, the lore in this documentary will be catnip.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
It's a pleasure to watch these men perform. These are real-life guitar heroes. But it would have been a treat to see more of them talking shop.
Read Full Review >NPR Mark Jenkins
The moments when the guitarists teach the others their best-known riffs are fascinating.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
With varying degrees of success, the filmmaker gets each musician to talk about the personal and musical roots that blossomed into his technique.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
The best parts of It Might Get Loud, though, occur when Guggenheim visits with the musicians one on one.
Read Full Review >New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott
Brilliant in its simplicity, as he turns the floor over to the three masters with this simple instruction: The guitar. Discuss.
Read Full Review >Washington Post John Anderson
One needn't have a Stratocaster moldering in the closet at home to get a kick out of It Might Get Loud.
Read Full Review >Film Threat K.J. Doughton
White and The Edge appear guarded, and perhaps a bit intimidated, by Page’s Yoda-like status.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Stan Hall
Feels like an iffy concept album with some great singles.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Sam Adams
The resulting jam session ought to be a music geek’s wet dream, but there isn’t enough common ground to produce more than a few flashes of inspiration.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
For rock fans, hearing many Led Zeppelin and U2 classics on a theater sound system is worth the price of a ticket.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
As documentary, it’s low concept. But it’s never dull.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Few of the parts harmonize properly, leaving us with provocative fragments rather than an electrifying whole.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Why isn’t the film better? Guggenheim doesn’t seem to have prodded his subjects in any interesting directions.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
The strain to pull all this together becomes more evident as the movie progresses, and the three-way musical finale, a rickety acoustic run-through of “The Weight,” hardly lives up to the stars’ reputations.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
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.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
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 recount their formative years and visit old haunts before heading on to a soundstage for their minimum rock & roll "summit."
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Eric A gave it a10:
If your a Zeppelin fan you know Pagerarely opens up like that!
Matt the Cat gave it an8:
I really enjoyed this movie, even if it has a few flaws (it never really got loud; what's with ending on them playing the over-played "The Weight"?). Great to see Jimmy Page looking so good and at peace- he has never seemed that together since Zeppelin ended. I'd love to see him in a working band again. This is a must-see for hard core rock fans; for others, rent it.
Jim P. gave it a5:
Page and The Edge...awesome!!!! Who is that third dude???? In 20 years maybe boy becomes man?
Keith J gave it a9:
If you are interested in rock and blues music, you will find something to enjoy in this movie. That said ... I found the jumps between the three musicians a bit distracting. Just when I was getting into one story, we left it behind and went to something else. Like many viewers, I had a lower opinion of one of the guitarists before the movie (in my case, The Edge), but came out of the movie with greater respect for his art.
Meg L gave it a9:
This doc is really about love of the electric guitar. The old footage of each band is fantastic. Interesting that they included less biological history of Page, The Edge, and White and more of a focus on their influences and essentially how they became so enraptured in the instrument.
kyal b gave it a10:
Greatly documented and very well done overall. Great film.
