A new documentary called "Pretenders," directed by Joss Crowley, offers what a Variety critic calls a near-definitive account of Chrissie Hynde and the band she fronted, exploring the tension between their punk roots and the melodic, "tuneful" quality that made their music enduring. The film matters as a piece of music history because it captures a band that emerged from London's late-1970s punk-into-new-wave scene yet produced songs of unusual warmth and craftsmanship, largely down to Hynde's songwriting and the late guitarist James Honeyman-Scott's distinctive "jangly" guitar sound.

The review highlights the film's use of extensive archival footage alongside a lengthy interview with Hynde, tracing her path from a conventional upbringing in Akron, Ohio, through Kent State University (where she was close to a student killed by the National Guard in 1970) to London in the early 1970s, where she immersed herself in drugs, worked as a music critic for NME, and struggled to find a band before forming the Pretenders in 1978 with bassist Pete Farndon. The review frames the documentary as capturing both the group's brilliance and, as the headline notes, an accompanying tragedy, situating classic songs such as "Precious" and "Kid" within Hynde's singular artistic voice.