Movie Review: Katy Perry Part Of Me

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So to stay out of the sweltering heat that doesn't seem to want to let go of Indiana I spent the afternoon at the movies where I saw the newest "concert film" Katy Perry's Part of Me. It's a concert film/documentary following Perry on her first major tour, her California Dreams world tour in 2011. It gives a pretty personal inside view of Perry's life both on and off stage. 

I can't say I'm a huge fan of Perry but I enjoy her music. Like I'm sure many people thought, I assumed she came out of nowhere when "I Kissed A Girl" hit the airwaves (this is even mentioned in the film) but it turns out Perry was working with her 4th record company (she has previously been signed to now-defunct label Red Hill, Island Def Jam and Columbia before ending up at Capitol Records) by the time her album One Of The Boys was released in 2008.

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I won't get into every singe detail of the film but I do want to touch on the highlights. You see quite a bit of Perry's family, her parents (who are Pentecostal evangelists), grandmother, her brother David and her sister Angela (who travels with Perry on tour). She's quite close with her family (her grandmother is a hoot!) along with her working family including her assistant, her stylist and makeup artist. 

Russell Brand makes several appearances early in the film as the tour begins and you see Perry try and make her marriage work while on tour, sometimes flying for hours and half-way around the world to spend a few days with Brand. But as it is known their marriage does eventually end while Perry is still on tour and you see her struggle with her obligations to her fans while she's sobbing backstage moments before she's supposed to go on.

Perry really seems to be grateful for her success, regardless of her personal issues, and you can see how she just lights up when she's meeting her fans backstage and outside venues. And in return her fans love her. There are short clips throughout the film of some of her fans describing what Perry means to them, her influence and her status as a role model for those who desire to be different and embrace who they are.

If you go into this film hoping you're going to get a Katy Perry concert for $8, sorry but you'll be disappointed. There is concert footage but not a lot of it (half a dozen songs or so and almost none of them are complete as they cut in and out with other footage). But if you're looking for more than 90 minutes of a Katy Perry sing-a-long, are a fan of Perry or just celebrity culture (there are cameos by several celebrities, most of them other music artists) then you'll enjoy this movie.

Perry at the Part of Me premier

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