At first blush, Katy Perry: Part of Me is just another part of the recent wave of 3-D-enabled concert documentary hagiographies, designed to extract money from moviegoers’ wallets and purses by preaching to the choir. And on a certain level it is that, to be sure. But in interweaving a snapshot overview of Perry’s life alongside her sprawling, international “California Dreams” tour, with its seven tour buses and 16 trucks — and in having the sad, dumb luck of also catching refracted glimpses of the rise and fall of her marriage to comedian Russell Brand — the movie achieves something few docs of its ilk have been able to do: it presents its subject as a fairly regular, hard-working girl, just trying to figure it out.
In addition to Perry herself, interviewees include co-managers Bradford Cobb Steve Jensen, assistant Tamra Natasin (who even has her own group of chirping sub-fans), and other assorted stylists and designers to whom Perry has shown steady loyalty, it is asserted. Early on, Perry’s shared insights and motivations aren’t exactly the stuff of amazing depth (“My goal playing shows,” she says, “is super-simple — to make people smile and have, like, a heart full of hope and happiness”). But as it progresses, a more full-bodied portrait emerges of Perry’s traveling-preacher parents and the strict Christian upbringing they imposed upon their kids. Says Perry’s younger brother, “We weren’t allowed to eat Lucky Charms because luck is of Lucifer.”
Apparently video cameras were totally fine, however, since there’s an enormous amount of footage of Perry as a kid (she got into singing and songwriting at age 13, and released a gospel album at age 15) and, most importantly, as an 18-year-old, where she chats openly about feeling as if the choice of thinking for herself and forming her own opinions was often taken away from her in adolescence. Yes, poppy and peppy musical numbers are scattered throughout Part of Me, including the titular anthem of self-empowerment, but it’s these informative glimpses behind the family curtain that form the true spine of co-directors Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz’s work, and give it a relatability.
Well, that and the other human moments, including fun with a fart soundboard, wherein Perry labels passing gas a “heinie hiccup.” The movie touches on her unraveling marriage and divorce tenderly and obliquely, and there’s something undeniably odd and sadomasochistic about signing off on filming private breakdowns — as is the case when Perry is in a state of depression and tears moments before an overseas concert, and then pivots by squaring her jaw and dramatically telling her make-up artist, “Start, Todd” — but it’s still a bit affecting, no matter how posed. Moving too, is a tender performance of “The One That Got Away,” a song clearly informed by her relationship woes and subsequent reflection. In the end, Part of Me is just that — part of Perry. It doesn’t dig down into her creative process very substantively, or successfully. But it does provide a multi-dimensional look at her as a real person, and that’s no small achievement.
Katy Perry: Part of Me comes to home video in a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack, inclusive of a digital copy of the film, with a cover that touts the movie’s CinemaScore and certified-fresh status on Rotten Tomatoes. The crisp, 1080p high definition Blu-ray transfer of the film is definitely the best way to experience it, along with the DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track. It’s split into 18 chapters, and pressing either the home or top disc menu during playback will pull up a horizontal options bar on the bottom rather than kicking a viewer back to the main menu.
Bonus features consist of full concert performances of the tunes “Waking Up in Vegas” and “Last Friday Night,” plus a clutch of little featurettes. One, at six minutes, focuses on Perry’s relationship with her 90-year-old grandmother, and includes extra footage of her stopping by to visit the day of her Las Vegas show. Sharing more family anecdotes, Perry’s grandmother also suggests a different-shaped bottle for Perry’s perfume, since as is “it turns over too easy.” Another tidbit, clocking in at five minutes, showcases Perry’s big rehearsal preparations for her Grammy performance this year, with more allusions to her split from Brand (“I want to show that I’m a victor, not a victim”); lacking rights to the actual clip, however, makes this laudatory build-up to such an “amazing” moment a bit strange. A half dozen other behind-the-scenes featurettes, each running around three to seven minutes, include Perry bumping into and being praised by various other celebrities (David Hasselhoff, Elle Fanning, Justin Bieber); working with dancers while invoking Steve Urkel in an assessment of her own abilities; and getting “California Dreams” ankle tattoos with her assistant and some other tour friends. These are fun little bits — and heck, her 58-year-old co-manager, Jensen, even submits to one, so caught up in the dream is he. To purchase the Blu-ray/DVD combo pack via Amazon, click here. B (Movie) B- (Disc)