The Indigo Girls have been going strong for over 40 years now, and perhaps the key to their resilience is that they’ve never been cool. Often, they get worse: Even at their commercial peak in the 1980s and ’90s, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers were regularly derided for being too earnest, too poetic, too folky, too tomboyish. Back then, being labeled a female, gay singer-songwriter was an artistic and commercial curse, as Ray recalls in “It’s Only Life After All,” a smart, compelling new documentary.
The director, Alexandria Bombach, benefited greatly from Ray’s archivist instincts: The musician grabbed decades’ worth of artifacts and opened his vault — 1981 rehearsals, recorded on cassette when Ray and Saliers were teenagers yet, are surprisingly crisp documents of an emerging chemistry, for example.
From this clay, Bombach sculpts a moving portrait of two women who stick to their beliefs and, just as importantly, their loyalty to each other. Existing fans will be enthralled, but non-fans like me should also get a kick out of “It’s Only Life After All.” The film is especially good about contextualizing the band’s emergence amid condescension (at best) from the mainstream media — their dramatic, and very funny, reading of a withering 1989 review in The New York Times is a highlight — with their personal struggles and strong political engagement for causes, including the Indigenous-led organization Honor the Earth.
Now the band is having a cultural moment — its hit “Closer to Fine” is prominently featured on “Barbie,” and an indie jukebox musical movie set to their songs, “Glitter & Doom,” is out. last month — it was heartening to see them have the last laugh.
It’s Only Life After All
Not rated. Running time: 2 hours 3 minutes. In theaters.
