You want the dirt? There ain't none. Documentaries without bite kinda bite, but can serve as well placed bookmarks for times long forgotten. Some say for the best. Yet there's enough in this here Linda Ronstadt biopic to achieve a wee bit of melancholic flashback entertainment.
Chiefly forgotten these days, Linda Ronstadt was a money making dynamo in the seventies, cranking out platinum albums, crossing over genres like there were no walls, dominating the AM radio charts, and gracing magazine covers with her squeaky clean cutie pie all American girl next door looks (sometimes in a Girl Scout uniform). Cool that next door is actually Mexico (which flows in her river of blood), and proved to be the inspiration for the fabulous "Conciones de mi Padre" record, easily the musical highlight of her varied career.
Ronstadt turns out to be quite the smart lady, delivering a confident maturity and political savvy belying her fresh years in an early clip. Her climb to fame, which at the time looked meteoric, was actually a struggle, yet seems all but inevitable because of her awesome pipes. It is great to see the power, command and drive in her live performances, since most of her albums are now garage sale filler. Ronstadt was a force of the times, but because she wasn't a composer, gets little historic play in the cruel entertainment biz.
As is par for a music doc course, the formative early years are the draw, and Ronstadt's are surprisingly kaleidoscopic. Her quirky family, which includes heralded inventor, great grandpa Ronstadt (the electric toaster!) deserves more air time, but the heady, just post-woodstock adventures with the Eagles, Emmylou Harris and Neil Young, is what rock loving boomers crave, and get.
A juicy tabloid romance with much maligned Governor Jerry Brown is hardly mentioned, which begs the question is there more than this squeaky clean wikipedia style document offers? Perhaps not. There may not be any dirt, but surely they could have dug a bit deeper.
Chiefly forgotten these days, Linda Ronstadt was a money making dynamo in the seventies, cranking out platinum albums, crossing over genres like there were no walls, dominating the AM radio charts, and gracing magazine covers with her squeaky clean cutie pie all American girl next door looks (sometimes in a Girl Scout uniform). Cool that next door is actually Mexico (which flows in her river of blood), and proved to be the inspiration for the fabulous "Conciones de mi Padre" record, easily the musical highlight of her varied career.
Ronstadt turns out to be quite the smart lady, delivering a confident maturity and political savvy belying her fresh years in an early clip. Her climb to fame, which at the time looked meteoric, was actually a struggle, yet seems all but inevitable because of her awesome pipes. It is great to see the power, command and drive in her live performances, since most of her albums are now garage sale filler. Ronstadt was a force of the times, but because she wasn't a composer, gets little historic play in the cruel entertainment biz.
As is par for a music doc course, the formative early years are the draw, and Ronstadt's are surprisingly kaleidoscopic. Her quirky family, which includes heralded inventor, great grandpa Ronstadt (the electric toaster!) deserves more air time, but the heady, just post-woodstock adventures with the Eagles, Emmylou Harris and Neil Young, is what rock loving boomers crave, and get.
A juicy tabloid romance with much maligned Governor Jerry Brown is hardly mentioned, which begs the question is there more than this squeaky clean wikipedia style document offers? Perhaps not. There may not be any dirt, but surely they could have dug a bit deeper.