Compare and contrast

Yes I know that's redundant. Shut up. Post critic Michael Booth on a featured movie at the Starz Presents the 2006 Denver International Fillum Festival (which ended today):

Wow, run out as soon as you see this and buy tickets for the showing of the Dixie Chicks documentary “Shut Up and Sing” at the Denver Film Festival [last] Thursday night. It’s a tremendously insightful and surprisingly moving portrait of the music industry, the current state of American politics/polemics, and the friendship of three remarkable women. There’s no schedule yet for it to open for a long run in Denver, though it likely will happen later this fall — so the festival is a good chance to see it early. The movie tells the story of their rash comments about President Bush, and how radio station conglomerates and reactionary talk show hosts collaborated to temporarily shut down the Dixie Chicks’ careers. Even if you’re not interested in the politics, there are terrific renditions of some of their best songs, and intimate portraits of the three musicians’ family lives.

And the Washington Post's Stephen Hunter, who liked the movie too, but is slightly less admiring of one of the Cheeks:

One of the excellent attributes of "Shut Up and Sing" is that it lets the cards fall where they may and really doesn't try to spin the Chicks themselves. It's quite possible, then, to watch the film and come to the conclusion that Natalie Maines has a big mouth. Spectacularly talented, the young singer is also a spectacular blowhard, and documentarian Barbara Kopple almost subversively focuses on Maines blabbering away at meetings without a serious thought in her head, no impulse control anywhere in sight, and, for some reason, always supine, as if her great status grants her the right to encounter the world from bed.

(via Tim Blair)

Update: Think I've mentioned this before, but besides being a Pulitzer-winning movie critic, Stephen Hunter is one of the best thriller writers around. Start with The Day Before Midnight.

Update II: Pretty anemic group blog the Post had going during the festival, isn't it? Why, if you didn't know better you'd think newspaper types still didn't get blogs, darned if you wouldn't.