It Might Get Loud

**** Stars

It Might Get Loud is a fascinating entertainment. A simple film, in which director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) understands its simplicity, and uses it towards his advantage. Featuring Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), The Edge (U2), and Jack White (The White Stripes, The Raconteurs), this riveting documentary captures three fantastic musicians from three different backgrounds who meet to discuss the history of the guitar, their experiences of rock stardom, and to share a well-deserved jam session. Rather than Guggenheim trying to show his experience throughout the making of the film (a la Michael Moore/performance style), he keeps all the action on the stars. Page, clearly the superior presence of the group, is shot with the class and mysterious wit he has so gracefully earned. The Edge, while obviously not on par with Page or even Jack White when it comes to playing guitar, is displayed as a musician of technological expertize. And Jack White, who deserves to be ranked as one of this generation's most natural-born musicians, is the perfect counterpart to this trio. The first shot of the film has White making a guitar out of one string, a piece of wood, a handful of nails, and an empty glass coke bottle. "Who says you need a guitar?" says White. I won't argue with you Jack, but when it comes to you, Jimmy Page, and The Edge, a guitar isn't the worst thing to have.