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Movies / Upcoming / Shut Up & Sing
Shut Up & Sing

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Shut Up & Sing (2006)

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Reviews Counted:117

Fresh:105

Rotten:12

Average Rating:7.6/10

Consensus: Though ostensibly an intimate look at the Dixie Chicks after their 2003 anti-Bush remark, the film achieves broader relevance by exploring how media, politics, and celebrities intertwine.

Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins

Genre: Musical & Performing Arts

US Box Office: $1,072,805

Synopsis: This documentary captures the female country-&-western group the Dixie Chicks in performance around the U.S. and London between the years 2003 and 2006. While performing in 2003, singer Natalie... This documentary captures the female country-&-western group the Dixie Chicks in performance around the U.S. and London between the years 2003 and 2006. While performing in 2003, singer Natalie Maines ignited a maelstrom of controversy and red-state outrage when she declared--from a London stage on the eve of the Iraqi conflict--that she was ashamed that President George W. Bush was from her home state of Texas. When a rabidly right-wing group picked up on it, the band found themselves in the center of controversy regarding the nature of patriotism, freedom of speech, feminism, and the split between pro- and anti-war Americans. Filmmaker Barbara Kopple brings us the fly-on-the-wall view of the next three years, capturing Haines and sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire in dressing rooms, on stage, and in recording studios, bonding with each other, their families, producer Rick Rubin, and their supportive manager, Simon Renshaw. Through the crises, they keep their sense of humor and sisterhood, not backing down from their liberal stance, and turning the backlash into a triumph. They also make some great music, and the film includes plenty of riveting, intense footage of the band in performance onstage and in the studio. Among the faces appearing in archival footage are President Bush, Bill Maher, and right-wing country star Toby Keith. [More]

Starring: Natalie Maines, Emily Robison, Martie Maguire, Rick Rubin

Starring: Natalie Maines, Emily Robison, Martie Maguire, Rick Rubin, George W. Bush, Adrian Pasdar

Director: Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck

Director: Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck
Producer: David Cassidy, Claude Davies, Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck
Studio: Weinstein Company

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Reviews for Shut Up & Sing

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61 - 80 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 >> >|
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Shut Up & Sing is further proof that today’s best American films are documentaries.

Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
11/17/06
Robert W. Butler
Robert W. Butler
Kansas City Star

These two movies — one about family and one about freedom — never quite dovetail.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
11/17/06
Andrew Lewicky
Andrew Lewicky
Houston Chronicle

The Dixie Chicks certainly don't shut up, but they do sing in Shut Up & Sing; and while some may wish they'd done more of one or the other, there's no denying the power of this documentary.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
11/17/06
Tom Long
Tom Long
Detroit News

The Dixie Chicks' struggle with the conflicting demands of art and commerce as portrayed in this documentary shows that they're still not ready to make nice.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
11/17/06
Marjorie Baumgarten
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle

...[We] see the real concern as the backlash gets serious enough to prompt death threats and the affair takes its toll on band members' families.

Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
11/17/06
Terry Lawson
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press

Whether you love or hate the outspoken Maines, you've got to give her this much: She's never boring.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
11/17/06
Christy Lemire
Christy Lemire
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

However you feel about the Dixie Chicks flap, you can enjoy the way Kopple and Peck capture candid moments.

Full Review Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News | comment Comment
11/17/06
Robert Denerstein
Robert Denerstein
Denver Rocky Mountain News

What emerges is an intimate and fascinating portrait of the three women who, instead of being 'divided and conquered,' stick together and build something new.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
11/17/06
Mary Houlihan
Mary Houlihan
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The filmmakers give us a good taste of what took the Chicks to such great heights

Full Review Source: Denver Post | comment Comment
11/17/06
Michael Booth
Michael Booth
Denver Post

... riveting documentary ...

Full Review Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel | comment Comment
11/16/06
Phoebe Flowers
Phoebe Flowers
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

... an intimate, if flawed, portrait of the unrepentant band ...

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
11/16/06
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

... [Kopple] takes us inside big-dollar professional entertainment and lets us see ego and stupidity and self-indulgence at play just as fiercely as artistry.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
11/16/06
Stephen Hunter
Stephen Hunter
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Whatever the ultimate effect on the group's career, their excursion into politics produced a wonderfully watchable movie.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
11/16/06
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune

... unfettered access to the band's strategy sessions with their manager and publicist yields a fascinating story nonetheless ...

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
11/16/06
J. R. Jones
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader

In watching the documentary Shut Up & Sing, one thought comes to mind. We all may be over the Dixie Chicks.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
11/16/06
Bill Muller
Bill Muller
Arizona Republic

There's no more soul-stirring way to relive the last three years, in all their miserable divisiveness, than to see Shut Up & Sing.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
11/16/06
Michael Phillips
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune

The intimate, fly-on-the-wall context is what's most winning.

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
11/16/06
Bob Townsend
Bob Townsend
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

They went on stage as the biggest act in country music only to be told that the country they were singing about doesn't want to hear what they really think.

Full Review Source: Metromix.com | comment Comment
11/16/06
Matt Pais
Matt Pais
Metromix.com

The film as a whole is less a political document than it is a sensitively detailed backstage portrait of a unique musical phenomenon.

Full Review Source: Premiere Magazine | comment Comment
11/16/06
Sara Brady
Sara Brady
Premiere Magazine

The drama suffers: The Dixie Chicks don't provide a rebellious force to rise against the inanity they faced.

Full Review Source: Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) | comment Comment
11/13/06
Mark Palermo
Mark Palermo
Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
 
 
61 - 80 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 >> >|
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