Review: It Might Get Loud

It Might Get Loud follows a simple formula: take two rock'n'roll legends, throw in an upstart musician, and blend into a documentary on the electric guitar that belongs in any contemporary musicologist's library. Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White are interviewed separately and together, along with some musical interludes that show an evolution of rock based on the earlier two performers' history and the latter's obsession with blues.

Page, known primarily known as the guitarist in Led Zeppelin, has a career that extends much farther back than non-aficionados know. Watching Page in It Might Get Loud is a real treat, as he tours the house where a Led Zeppelin album was recorded, talking about how the architecture influenced the sounds, as well as the initial critical pans of a now considered seminal album. Unassuming and genial, Page is riveting. 

The Edge, is equally unassuming and mesmerizing, explaining how he creates his sound, and discussing his early days in U2.  White, on the other hand, is jarring, with his obsession with obscure blues artists and aching to bleed for his art. Where Page and The Edge focus on their music, White seems driven by ego to focus on his process.  It makes an interesting comparison.

Director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) hasn't broken any new ground in documentary style, so the value of the film is in the interest of the subjects and the music.  If you're a rock'n'roll aficionado, consider It Might Get Loud a must-see.

It Might Get Loud opens today in Austin at the Landmark Dobie and Regal Arbor.