I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Such a frustrating disappointment

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

all about the African American women who served as backup singers to big stars.two full hours…some good moments, but over-shadowed by blaming others for the same. How dare they (elton, Elvis, Tom Jones, etc…) not give equal billing to the backup singers who made them superstars?The movie got old after ten minutes. And unless you enjoy that angry yelling type of singing, you might not enjoy this movie.So this review I guess has to be a minimum of ten lines before they will post it. Overall it might be worth watching if you're a bleeding heart and enjoy hearing people whine. But in my case, I love the program The Voice, and I usually put it on mute when loud mouth women come on and start screaming. Maybe that's because it's not a good sound to me. I prefer softer voices. Now, is that ten lines? I hope so, because i would like for others to know what this movie is about before they spend $$$, or rather, waste $$$.thank you.

"Twenty Feet from Stardom" is written and directed by Morgan Neville, who is not new to the genre at all. He has already worked on documentaries about Johnny Cash, Pearl Jam and Ray Charles to name only a few. Here, however, he takes a look at these who are not in the limelight: the background singers. It is a bit of an irony that his biggest success, namely an Academy Award win for Best Documentary, comes with putting the focus on these and not on the real superstars. I cannot say too much about how deserving this film was to win as I have not seen any of the other nominees, but I have seen Blackfish and it is quite a shame that this Orca-based documentary did not even get nominated.I did not really like "20 Feet from Stardom". Most of it is very clichéd. They keep saying several times that you need a huge ego for a huge career and that they are maybe background singers as they lack that ego. However, from the way these ladies acted and talked, I did not have the impression at all that they weren't egoistic enough. They seemed actually to have a bigger ego than some of the stars they did the background for. Maybe it simply is that they are not talented enough? The upside of this documentary is that you hear some real quality songs and see some interesting artists in a bit of a behind the scenes documentary. I liked the Stones' performance of Gimme Shelter with a magnificent performance from the female singer and also the version of "Lean on Me" near the end. These two are not enough to save the film from mediocrity though. It is certainly not the ultimate background singer documentary I had hoped for.The Phil Specter criticism part was probably intended as one of the emotionally sad highlight, but the way it was displayed with the look in her face and the music in the background was just so over the top as if a 1,000 people just died that it felt completely artificial and cringeworthy. Other than that, the majority of the film is uplifting despite them letting us know what a tough job they actually have. But all the ones interviewed have performed with absolute superstars, so my sympathy is kind of limited here. If there is an upper class of background singers, then it is those people shown int his documentary. What about the ones struggling even harder? Where are they? It just lost a lot of credibility for me because of that. I am sure they made good money and still they behaved like they got absolutely nothing.The film also showed that it is actually possible to make it from background singer to "real" singer and I liked the "Lion King" reference as I quite adore the film. What I found strange is that this film somehow lets the audience think there are only black female background singers. With one or two exceptions, none of the many people in there were male or white. I don't know what Neville intended with limiting it to that one specific group and what his point was in doing that. I personally would have hoped for a more general film in terms of the history of background singers instead of the specific lives and fates of those interviewed. Sometimes it just wasn't interesting enough to attract my attention. Not recommended.

This is a documentary revolving around several back up singers and their struggles in the music business and how talented they are and how they never became famous. It's kind of sad how these people worked so hard and had as much talent as the celebs they sang back up for and now they have trouble paying their bills. I thought it could've been expanded out more though. They seem to only concentrate on a few specific singers. It was more of a human interest documentary. I would've like to have seen something more informational that delved into the history of back up singers and how they got started. Other than Bruce Springsteen, it pretty much just concentrated on R&B, which I love. I just would've liked to have seen the different types of music sung by the back up singers. Don't get me wrong, it had it's moments that were interesting and heart warming. I just found it a little to dull to have won the Oscar.

One of the things that I liked about the film was showing a part of the music industry that is often not examined very often which is the background singers the ones who deliver the vocals heard in many popular singers, while I commend those who work their ads off to get in the music industry and seeing what had to be done to succeed, the documentary has interviews from famous background singers such as Darlene love known for playing truth murtaugh in the lethal weapon films and Judith hill who was s contestant on the fifth season of the voice. Overall I would say the documentary does a great job showing the impact that background singers have and their importance as well.