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![Singer Linda Ronstadt is seen at the Grammy awards show on February 28, 1984. Singer Linda Ronstadt is seen at the Grammy awards show on February 28, 1984.](https://cdn.aarp.net/content/dam/aarpe/en/home/entertainment/movies-for-grownups/info-2019/review-linda-ronstadt-the-sound-of-my-voice/_jcr_content/root/container_main/container_body_main/container_body1/container_body_cf/body_one_cf_one/par0/articlecontentfragme/cfimage.coreimg.50.932.jpeg/content/dam/aarp/entertainment/movies-for-grownups/2019/09/1140-linda-ronstadt-closeup.jpg)
Rating: PG-13
Run time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Directors: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Look, Ma, no downward spiral! Rock documentaries often document self-destruction, but this celebration of 10-Grammy-winning singer Linda Ronstadt, 73, is refreshingly uplifting. Award-winning filmmakers Rob Epstein (The Times of Harvey Milk, The Celluloid Closet), 64, and Jeffrey Friedman (The Celluloid Closet), 68, deliver an inspiring portrait of the trailblazing rock ‘n’ roller, a big-hearted girl with a gorgeous voice and a soul to match.
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Born in Tucson, Ronstadt drove to California at 18 in the 1960s, found an $80 apartment on Santa Monica Beach, befriended the up-and-coming pop power elite at the Troubadour Club, and launched a genre-busting career spanning pop, folk, country, light opera and mariachi music, selling over 100 million records. She dated George Lucas, Steve Martin, Albert Brooks, Jim Carrey and California governor and presidential candidate Jerry Brown, but her romantic life is less central to the story than her life onstage. Much of the movie's pleasure is performance footage: her early work with the Stone Poneys ("Different Drum"), her Johnny Carson appearance and her startling leap to star in Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance. A restless experimenter, she reached deep into her Mexican roots to sing passionate Spanish-language standards on Canciones de Mi Padre, the bestselling non-English album in U.S. music history.
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