Girls Rock! (2008)

68% of critics liked it
(40 reviews)
79% of users liked it
(628 ratings)

Via their documentary Girls Rock!, co-directors Arne Johnson and Shane King transport viewers to a most unusual summer destination: Rock 'n' Roll Camp, where young women from ages 8 to 18 each spend one week learning to choose a band, play a rock instrument, and write a song. The central lesson… More Via their documentary Girls Rock!, co-directors Arne Johnson and Shane King transport viewers to a most unusual summer destination: Rock 'n' Roll Camp, where young women from ages 8 to 18 each spend one week learning to choose a band, play a rock instrument, and write a song. The central lesson behind the week's activities involves a complete liberation from social conformity and from traditionally accepted behavioral rules and gender stereotyping. More significantly, such real-life rock legends as Sleater-Kinney and Carrie Brownstein participate in the camp, encouraging the young girls to fully accept their own individuality, eccentricities, and interpersonal differences, while they offer instruction on such areas as anger management and self-defense. The documentary -- like each week of the camp itself -- concludes with a massive rock concert, performed by the bands in front of over 700 people. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Play Trailer

Rating, Runtime: PG, 1 hr. 29 min.
Directed By: Arne Johnson, Shane King
Genres: Documentary, Musical & Performing Arts, Special Interest

In Theaters: Apr 21, 2007 Wide
On DVD: Jan 27, 2009
Studio: Shadow Distribution

Critic Reviews

Ty Burr, Boston Globe
How are girls supposed to behave in a culture that tells them they're Disney princesses for the first 12 years and sex toys after that? Girls Rock! has one answer: Strap on a Fender and rage against the machine.
Sid Smith, Chicago Tribune
There's too little clarity or thoroughness in the biographies, too few prolonged scenes of the girls creating their songs.
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post
There's so much joy and coming-of-age angst turned into nuggets of gold that it seems uncharitable to ask, what might be missing (more onscreen appreciation for rock's goddesses and gods, perhaps.)
Desson Thomson, Washington Post
It's goooood.
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
Young women find expression for more than their music in Girls Rock!, a jubilant documentary about a place where power chords and empowerment go hand in hand.
Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle
Some of the footage is entertaining. Too much of it is confusing, repetitive or unremarkable.
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com
comes off a bit like an extended advertisement for the place
David Cornelius, DVDTalk.com
The filmmakers end up rushing us through these girls' stories, achieving a vague sense of female angst but ultimately barely skimming the surface.
Loey Lockerby, Kansas City Star
It's a great program and a great subject, but Girl's Rock! directors Shane King and Arne Johnson don't quite know what to do with it.
Jeff Vice, Deseret News, Salt Lake City
There is a slightly patronizing flavor to portions of this mostly enjoyable film. But the interview subjects are very likable and charismatic, which certainly helps.
Phil Villarreal, Arizona Daily Star
Girls rock, flat documentaries do not.
Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun
Girls Rock! is scrappy, but at its best, it shows you humans blooming with the speed of flowers in time-lapse photography.
John Beifuss, Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
'Why don't you start your own band? That's a lot cooler than having a boyfriend in a band!' So says 15-year-old Laura, who makes a better pitch for the 'empowerment' aspects of the Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls than do the adult counselors...
Felix Vasquez Jr., Film Threat
Never seeks to be anything more than a simplistic look at young women not just learning how to create music, but how to take hold of their talents and use it to their advantage...
Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters
Music -- as a general concept and in the daily details of rock camp -- occasions this ideal state, connected and creative.
Ron Wilkinson, Monsters and Critics
Girls at risk take the world by storm at an artists' refuge where it's all right to scream.
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
Rhetoric far outweighs substance in this vaguely satisfying and preachy doc.
Tim Cogshell, Boxoffice Magazine
captures a good deal more than the sometimes discordant music produced by these young, would-be chick-monsters of rock.