Fanny: The Right to Rock
directed by Bobbi Jo Hart
starring Jean Millington, June Millington, Brie Darling, Alice de Buhr, Nickey Barclay, Patti Quatro
Adobe Productions International
Believe it or not, girls really can rock. The first band to do so (that wasn’t a made up Phil Spector act) was Fanny. Beginning in the 1970s, they were very popular but suffered one fatal flaw: they never wrote a chart topper until they were about to fall apart as so many promising bands do.
This rather dreamy documentary is packed with sex, drugs, and female rock and roll. It shows the innards of the easy-living LA hippie scene, the work needed to succeed, and their collapse after five hard years of rocking. The women are now well into the social security years, but they still make music. They prepare for a final tour and album release, only to have it set back by Jean Adamian-Millington having a stroke. That show went on, but the energy was gone, and it’s a sad ending to a groundbreaking career.
