MOVIE REVIEW: 'Girls Rock!'
From the March 7 Oregonian....
We live in a world where Paris Hilton gets to cut an album, "American Idol" cranks out oversinging fembots and female "recording artists" are often former Mouseketeers lip-syncing flavorless garbage as part of a larger marketing assault on radios, cineplexes and boutiques.
As Britney Spears tumbles down hillocks of paparazzi into various rehab facilities and loony bins, the Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls seems more essential than ever.
The non-profit, five-day Camp was founded in Portland in 2001. It's a response to the late-'90s supplanting of Lilith Fair she-rockers by Spears and her fellow pop-tards. The Camp offers girls who love music a DIY alternative -- teaching them to stop worrying about perfection, get un-selfconsciously loud and express actual opinions. Counselors (including women from local acts like Sleater-Kinney and The Gossip) teach girls ages 8-18 how to form bands, play instruments, write songs, weather disagreements and (at week's end) perform for an audience of 750.
In the documentary "Girls Rock!," filmmakers Arne Johnson and Shane King follow four campers through four very different experiences.
- Laura, 15, is a sardonic, death-metal-loving adoptee;
- Misty, 17, is a recovering drug addict from Beaverton;
- Amelia, 8, is a chaotic noise junkie who writes songs about her pets;
- and Palace, 7, is a fashion-conscious moppet with a weirdly mature stage presence and a glass-shattering punk screech. (Palace is the daughter of a fashionista who worries she conditioned Palace to be too image-conscious. Perhaps because of this, the kid easily ends up being the most charismatic rocker of the bunch.)
Johnson and King embed themselves thoroughly with the kids, capturing arguments, confessions and teen drama as the campers learn that "everyone is beautiful in their own way … and they decide to be powerful and they decide to rock" -- even if the bands don't always gel in the process. Sprinkled in are clips from kitschy old documentaries like "That Junior Miss Spirit," plus kid-friendly animated segments that convey stats like "In music videos, only 22% of musicians are women" and "The #1 wish of girls is to lose weight."
"Girls Rock!" is maybe a smidge too long, and occasionally suffers from feeling like a rah-rah infomercial for how awesome the Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls is. (These moments usually involve campers saying "awesome" and "amazing" a lot, and feel designed more for future campers than filmgoers.) It also seems like an omission that camp founder Misty McElroy is interviewed, but no mention is made of her resigning in 2005 after disagreements with the camp's board.
Of course, to be fair, that would have diluted the doc's focus -- which is the vivid young women and their learning curve. There's something, well, awesome about watching the girls realize that music isn't always made on computers as they give their bands cool names like "The Ready" and get onstage after five days and ferociously sing earnest lyrics they wrote themselves (including, and I quote, "Bush is such an idiot / He won't sign the Kyoto treaty").
"Girls Rock!" leaves you hoping against hope for the future of popular music when Laura very logically asks herself, "Why don't you start your own band? That's a lot cooler than having a boyfriend in a band."
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B; 90 minutes; rated PG for thematic elements and language.
There are several opening-weekend celebrations associated with the Portland premiere of "Girls Rock!" -- including a VIP reception hosted by Sam Adams on March 7, an appearance by the Rose City Rollers at Cinema 21 on March 8, and a performance by the band Blübird (comprising former Rock Camp attendees) on March 9, Portland International Women's Day. For more information visit www.GirlsRockMovie.com or www.GirlsRockCamp.org.
'Girls Rock!' (The Oregonian, March 7, 2008)
i just saw this last night and loved it! palace is just poised and ready to become the next future punk rock star.
Posted by: maria | March 12, 2008 at 11:40 AM