Dave Grohl covers the history of the Sound City music
studio and puts together jam sessions with artists from the studio's past.
Passion projects don't get much much more sincere than this. I'm a mild fan of the Foo Fighters at best, although I've always liked Dave Grohl a lot. He's one of those guys who looks like he loves what he's doing. I don't recall hearing him complaining about his fame. He always seems enthused about whatever he's working on. That comes across in Sound City. This isn't the most technically well made documentary. It's shaggy and lacks focus. You get the sense that Grohl had trouble letting go of any part of the film, so it covers 10 topics where it should cover 3. Still, it's a very easy and enjoyable watch because it comes from a place of genuine interest.
The first half covers the history of Sound City and is filled with the kind of music nerd details that you would hope to get. It does a good job touching on all the major points and establishes the importance of the famous mixing console. The latter half of the film brings in an impressive collection of artists to record songs on that console, which is now part of Grohl's home studio. And it doesn't turn into some sort of concert movie then. It's about the recording process. You get a real sense of what the process is for artists like Paul McCartney and Stevie Nicks, which is pretty cool. It's a bunch of false starts and on the fly changes.
I'm not sure that I need to see Grohl as a filmmaker again. I'm not sure he'd bring the same passion to another project and that's what holds this one together. This could've easily been a multi-hour documentary series, so I appreciate his restraint to keep this under 2 hours.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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