Never getting too caught up in her personal life, “Part of Me” offers plenty.
**** out of 5
95 minutes
Rated PG for some suggestive content, language, thematic
elements and brief smoking
Paramount Pictures
It’s been four years now since Katy Perry burst onto the music scene with “I
Kissed a Girl” and she just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Packed with enough
sexual energy to make any boyfriend at the time nervous, if you looked
carefully you could see her tongue planted firmly in cheek. I knew there had to
be more of a backstory to this new artist and quickly looked upon the almighty
YouTube for more. Of course there were older music videos, some for songs far
better than her first smash hit, the funniest being for “Ur So Gay.” But at the
time, it seems doubtful that anyone listening to “
Teenage Dream” had any clue
about her time spent with The Matrix or her first album produced by Glen
Ballard.
Directors Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz are no strangers to
documentary/concert films, having served as producers on Justin Bieber’s “
Never Say Never”
last year. Now they get to finally put on a show of their own with “
Katy Perry: Part of Me,” and they couldn’t have picked a
bigger star. Chronicling her 2011 tour, unsurprisingly, her personal life
outshines her candy-colored onstage spectacular spectacular. The best being her
stop in Las Vegas
to visit her grandmother. Is it any surprise that she nearly steals the show?
Not really. But the rest of the interview sequences are just as fun and the
backstage antics show she’s just a girl living a dream come true.
People always at first seem surprised to hear that I don’t hate Katy Perry
or her music. She’s fun and rambunctious and sometimes a little pop music never
hurt anyone. While I would never shell out the money to attend one of her
pop-up book come- to-life performances (featuring more costume changes than a
‘90s-era Reba concert), I can see the appeal. And the musical numbers really
shine in 3D. With lots of hits to run through, you’re hard pressed not to run
across a favorite here. Everything from “Teenage Dream” to “Hot n Cold” and
“E.T.” to “Last Friday Night” serve as backdrops to her personal life, with the
best bits lending an emotional pull with “The One That Got Away” and “Not Like
the Movies” about her broken-hearted whirlwind relationship with Russell Brand.
Whether you love Katy Perry or not, you can’t ignore how much fun she’s
having even while it takes the biggest toll on her personal life. But at least
she has her sister Angela (who even gets involved in the films best gag when
she appears onstage as Katy’s alter-ego Kathy Beth Terry for a performance of
“Last Friday Night”) and best friend Shannon Woodward (“
Raising Hope”)
at her side through thick and thin. Katy really is a girl with a huge streak of
good luck and hard work under her belt as manager Bradford Cobb mentions, it
took them five years to wind up with an album with five #1 songs. Katy is the
first and only artist since Michael Jackson to accomplish this feat. Anyone
reading this already knows whether they are going to see the film or not and
you can’t blame them. But at least I can assure everyone else they will be
thoroughly entertained as well even if sometimes “
Katy Perry: Part of Me” doesn’t
quite show all of her.
Photos courtesy Paramount Pictures
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