Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

jonnytheshirt This Documentary depicts some wonderful ladies of music, and their trials and tribulations. It also depicts some fantastic back stage stories and behind the scenes background on some wonderful artists and music, and damn these ladies can sing. A definite recommendation for any music lover with contributions from top artists. Alas the topic holding the thread together - as to why most backing singers are Twenty feet from Stardom - comes as no surprise and is summed up briefly by Sting and even Mick Jagger (who lets face it is a man of an acquired taste regarding voice) in one sentence from each of them. Nonetheless it's a great look at music through the years and you do feel for these lovely warm people, some of which were certainly shafted at times in their careers, however we all kinda know now that's the music business. We'll probably never see their like again so well worth spending some time with them.

C Heeky 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.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "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.

Marc Israel "20 Feet From Stardom" has been rightly called the sister piece to "Standing In The Shadows Of Motown". There are poignant moments in history as well as described by those we already know in the spotlight. For those of us whom already have experience the epiphany of identification with the chorus and not the lead, the film acts as validation to a point. Only one of thy stories really attempts to show the lack of real opportunity for those young black singers, but as much as I hate these singing contests on network TV, they are honest in stating they are looking for stars. I only saw one here in Darlene Love. The stories, historical clips and pictures were successful in painting the tapestry of the time ,and were the most entertaining. Claudia Lennear as one of the Ikettes, for example, was appropriate and acute. The Lisa Fischer segment seemed a bit underwhelming and left me unsympathetic. I love the music and the attitudes of the back up singers, but not everyone is a star. Bruce Springsteen is bold enough to state it, but I'm not sure if many of those on screen fully accepted that.