Katy Perry: Part of Me: Review By Bryan Yentz

"I wanna see your peac*ck, c*ck, c*ck; your peac*ck, c*ck. Your peac*ck, c*ck. Come on, baby; let me see, what you're hiding underneath. . . Don't be a chicken, boy; stop acting like a 'bee-yotch', I'mma peace out if you don't give me the pay off."

--Katy Perry, "Peac*ck" from the album, "Teenage Dream"

If you're within the millions of fans that groove and sing to such hard-hitting lyrics of honest catharsis, chances are you'll be first in line to witness Katy Perry's most recent foray into theaters with her immensely bland doc*mentary, PART OF ME. And yes, I saw it. Not of my own volition, mind you.

Honestly, I'd even use the word "doc*mentary" lightly as the film really doesn't delve that far into "the Katy we don't know". This is far more a collection of live performances than a tried-and-true depiction of a singer dealing with fame, family, pain and heartbreak. Put it this way: I am in no way a fan of Perry, I don't listen to her music and I only know the extent of her life through the cover of a People Magazine--and I learned NOTHING new about her here. Scratch that, I did come to find that her parents appear to be making a decent buck off of her exploits as her father looks more like a pimp than a preacher. However, everything else about this "doc" is so empty of compelling information that it all just feels like a glorified performance. And seriously, how many people actually enjoy traveling to a theater to watch a pre-recorded live performance on a big screen? Better idea: go see her ACTUALLY live, or, Youtube a live performance for free. Just saved you twenty bucks.

Throughout the course of the film, we delve into Katy's religious background and see how much she "struggled" to become a musician, but all of it just rings hollow. The entire project seem fearful of being too honest with who she is and what she's actually done in her life to get to where she is (the entire relationship with Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes is completely swept under the rug. . . Hmm. . . Wonder why?) and the destruction of her marriage is only viewed in a brief snippet where she briefly cries and her managers hilariously stand around watching tears stream off of her face--as if they've never seen sadness before. Even Perry's brother hints at a falling out she had with him over her stardom, but again, nothing is truly mentioned about this material to make any of it the least bit meaningful. And about all of the rumored excess, insane partying and substance abuse? Nothing. Nothing at all.

Outside of Perry's footage, we glean "opinions" from her coattail-clinging menagerie who vie for the top position of, "I knew Katy before. . . She's my best friend". Nearly all of the random faces that populate the screen seem so dead-set on bragging about their affinity for her that they forget to fill the time with any information that might be the least bit compelling. Upon the nth time an interviewee began a pissing contest about "how great she is" and "how we were friends before all of this", I gave up on the fact that none would dish any sort of honesty about their relationship with the most popular woman in music; as if they were speaking to the camera with a gun trained on them off-screen. What's hilariously worse is the fact that all of her closest compatriots speak about how difficult her life is and how they "don't understand how she keeps up with what she does". . . Umm, really? Not because she's paid more in a month than most will make in a lifetime JUST TO PERFORM. Jus' sayin' but when you're paid unfathomable amounts of money to dance, sing and star in movies, it typically outweighs the negatives of "having to work".

And then there are the "live" performances which make up 80% of the flick. They look pretty with the stylish effects, garish colors and off-kilter set designs, but again, why bother paying to see a "live-not-live" performance when you could invest in either an ACTUAL live performance or watch videos online for free? I mean, do you really need to see Perry splooging a cannon of white, 3D foam over her audience after singing about c*ck--I mean, "peac*cks"?

Then again, I can't say I'm surprised that this doc*mentary was so bereft of anything that would make it truly qualify as a legit doc*mentary. If this were a truthful, earnest and heartfelt depiction of the poppy vocalist than it might be detrimental to her reputation as a whole. And no record label is going to willingly sabotage someone of such large profits with something as "lame" as the truth. By the end of it, you don't ever see the Katy behind the gloss, behind the sets, behind the camera, behind the drama. . . Behind anything. You acquire a limp outline of who she might be, not the possibility of who she actually is. She's a beautiful woman with some obvious talent and ambition, but this is an incredibly weak "film" and a sorry excuse for a doc*mentary. "A PIECE OF ME", or, "A SEMBLANCE OF ME", would have been more appropriate titles.