Katy Perry: Part of Me Review
Review by Movie Nation
That Katy Perry is so down to Earth, so darned cute that you can almost forgive her all the questions that her bubble-gum tunes invite from young children. “Mommy, what’s a ‘menage a trois?’”
Never mind, dear. And forget that “put your hands on me in my skin-tight jeans” and “took too many shots” and raiding our liquor cabinet stuff, too.
Pop’s reigning tart gets what amounts to a warts-and-all treatment in the 3D concert-and-more documentary “Katy Perry: Part of Me.” Sure, there’s plenty of that image control that Miley Cyrus/Justin Bieber and their handlers put on display in similar films.
But here we see Perry in more unguarded moments, from that time she heard her song on the radio, or out of makeup when she wakes up in the morning (not a good look for anybody), weeping over her failed marriage to British bad-boy Russell Brand until the moment the spotlight hits her on stage.
She treats us to the grind, the years of struggle, the failed attempts to launch a career, the hard work of a concert tour and the “fairytale” Mission: Impossible that was her marriage.
Nooo, nobody saw THAT coming.
Review by Slate
Here’s the totality of my experience of Katy Perry before walking into her new self-produced concert documentary, Katy Perry: Part of Me: I knew her as a tabloid item, the pop star who recently ended her marriage to the English comedian Russell Brand. I was familiar with the assaultively cute style of her music videos—candy-colored, cartoonish, blending the childlike with the coyly sexual. (The one that’s stuck with me the longest, unfortunately, was the “California Gurls” video where she sprays jets of whipped cream out of her bra in slow motion.) And I had heard a good friend’s 6-year-old daughter belt out “Firework,” Perry’s self-esteem-boosting megahit, a few dozen times in impromptu atop-the-couch performances.
Review by Washington Post
If the 3-D documentary “Katy Perry: Part of Me” can be trusted, the record-setting pop star is not just a blue-haired doll-person but also a goofy, sweet and spacey-yet-savvy singer whose main concern is turning average people into candy-coated smile flowers. As a piece of pro-Perry propaganda, the entertaining and disarmingly poignant movie from directors and reality television vets Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz is a startling success. Although there are moments when the filmmakers’ fingerprints are nearly visible on the manipulated putty of an audience, the scenes aren’t enough to break the fruit-flavored spell.
The main thread of the movie follows the “Firework” singer during 2011. It was a particularly eventful year for Perry, who globe-trotted for her sold-out California Dreams Tour and also ended her 14-month marriage to scraggly British comedian Russell Brand. Backstage footage shares screen time with concert numbers, old home movies and interviews that chronicle Perry’s relatively slow rise to success.
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