SYNOPSIS

The 2012 documentary Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, directed by Drew DeNicola and Olivia Mori, is a beautifully crafted deep dive into the rise, fall, and eventual resurrection of one of rock’s greatest cult bands.
Formed in Memphis in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens, and Andy Hummel, Big Star was meant to be the next great American rock band. With a sound blending British Invasion melodies, shimmering guitars, and deeply emotional songwriting, they should have been radio staples. But as the documentary shows, fate—and the notoriously unreliable music industry—had other plans.

CINDIE SAYS:

Few bands embody the phrase “ahead of their time” as perfectly as Big Star. Despite their near-total commercial failure in the 1970s, their music would go on to influence generations of artists, from R.E.M. and The Replacements to Elliott Smith and Wilco.

What makes Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me so compelling is that it isn’t just a rock documentary—it’s a meditation on artistic perseverance, missed opportunities, and the power of music to endure. While the band members rarely found mainstream success in their lifetimes, their work would become a touchstone for alternative rock and indie music in the decades that followed.

As the film’s title suggests, in the end, nothing can truly hurt Big Star—not commercial failure, not industry neglect, not even the deaths of its key members. Their music lives on, more beloved today than ever, proving that great art always finds its audience, even if it takes decades.