TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2026 REVIEW! Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been was the winner of the People’s Choice Documentary Award at TIFF this year, and that’s really saying something given the competition.
You may not know the name Darlene Love, but you certainly know her voice. You may remember her from her perennial hit single Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), which was performed every year on David Letterman’s shows. Or you may know her as the lead singer on He’s a Rebel, or He’s Sure the Boy I Love, though maybe not, because Phil Spector credited them to another group. Or you may remember her as Roger Murtaugh’s wife in the Lethal Weapon series. And you’ve heard her on the Ronettes’ Be My Baby, Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s Monster Mash, Frank Sinatra’s That’s Life,, or plenty of other songs.
Darlene Love belts out one of her classic hits in a scene from Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been.
Put simply, Darlene Love is one of the best singers in rock and roll history…
I happened to know more than most about Darlene Love from Andrew Hickey’s astounding podcast A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs, which, if you’ve never heard it, you must rectify immediately. But I also remembered her as one of the main characters in 2013’s 20 Feet From Stardom, which told the fascinating and varied stories of backup singers and earned director Morgan Neville an Academy Award Best Documentary. There’s so much more to Love’s story that I didn’t know, and I’m delighted that with Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been, director Barry Avrich has told it with the style, panache, and depth that it deserves.
Put simply, Darlene Love is one of the best singers in rock and roll history, as evidenced by her 2011 induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Still, while she’s known and respected by people in the industry, her name recognition with the general public is not in proportion to her talent. She’s just missed achieving breakout stardom many times for a variety of reasons, and instead has slowly added to her reputation and recognition through relentless perseverance.
"…director Barry Avrich has told it with the style, panache, and depth that it deserves. "
