First, a thought of the day: "Sometimes, pithy Sundance wisdom comes not from moguls, but from 'the little guy' fighting against life's petty cruelties."
Now on to the day's post: Yes, that's right, I actually managed to see a real live documentary today (for those of you who wondered why the hell you were reading yesterday's column). It was Davis Guggenheim's It Might Get Loud and it was pure, unmitigated pleasure. The film's premise almost sounds like a setup for an old joke: "So, Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White walk into a soundstage filled with guitars..." But it's anything but a joke; for anyone musically inclined, it's pure bliss.
Many music documentaries are empty shells; they don't inspire you to pick up an instrument or even listen to the tracks. This one goes deep, in terms of how the musical sausage is actually made. Hear the Edge's four-track demos recorded on a cassette tape that looks like it came from Radio Shack! See the foyer in Jimmy Page's house where the drum track to "When The Levee Breaks" was recorded! And understand where Jack White found his musical soul. I can only guess that the music budget for this film was probably more than entire films I've made and yet lower than the bailout funds going to banks. But it was truly impressive, not because of the expense, but because they could actually afford all the necessary tracks they had to have (and live performance footage). You didn't leave thinking, "How could they make that film and not have ______ (fill in the song here)?" They had 'em all.
The high point of the film, watching these three guys jam, unexpectedly and truly brought tears to my eyes, because they related to each other exactly the way any three garage-band musicians who sit down to jam try to figure out what the lead guy is playing to riff off of it. And I could relate to that experience.
Extra special bonus was Jack White himself taking the stage for the Q&A.
I had offered Davis (who debuted An Inconvenient Truth in that very theater -- the Library -- at Sundance three years prior) a tagline for his trailer back when he was on a panel we did Film Independent last fall. And I still stand by it: "The director who saved the world...is about to rock your world." (You have to say it with the right, "trailer-guy" voice for it to work). Come on Sony Classics, it's there for the taking.
Below is some video of me outside the theater in the cold waiting for delightful fellow Board Member Laurie Ann Schag to show up with my ticket. Without her, I'd have missed it all!