Shut Up and Sing
Length: Single
Studio: The Weinstein Company
Rated: R
Release Date: 2006-12-07
Cast: Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire, Emily Robison, Simon Renshaw
Director: Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck
Music Score: The Dixie Chicks
WorkNameSort: Shut Up and Sing
Our Rating: 4.00
With watchmaker skill, director Barbara Kopple plays both loose and tight with time in her Dixie Chicks doc. The film jumps around before, during and after Natalie Maines’ infamous 2003 dis on Bush to limn the heartland insanity that followed and the way the Chicks and their extended family of husbands and managers coped and triumphed. The pleasures here are many and true. There’s the wholesome delight of sassy Chick chat about strategic blow-job deployment and child rearing, great in-studio bits and a perfect visual summation of who they are via scenes of them studying C-SPAN in curlers. No matter the stressor ‘ death threats, Bush’s condescending remarks (‘What a dumbfuck,â?� Maines opines) or facing a future with no genre to rely on ‘ you know these three will have each others’ backs. While Shut Up works great as music doc, progressive pep rally and neo-Capra triumph tale, it’s even better as a bighearted tale of the love between three extraordinary women.
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2006.