Katy Perry: Part Of Me DVD Review

Directors: Dan Cutforth, Jane Lipsitz

Starring: Katy Perry, Russell Brand, Adam Marcello, Johnny Wujek, Steve Jensen

Running Time: 90 minutes

Certificate: PG

Extras: ‘Last Friday Night’ Full Concert Performance, Grandma: ‘Thinking Of You’, BFF

Hard-hitting, meaningful, and intense aren’t terms you’d expect to hear in relation to KATY PERRY: PART OF ME and you’d be correct: PART OF ME is bubblegum masquerading as barbed wire. But is that a bad thing?

Following the then-Mrs Russell Brand on her year-long world tour, the film  examines life on tour, her rise to stardom, and her family. It also includes what appears to be enough miming to make even Madonna think, ‘Blimey, she’s ripping the fans off’.

Like any recording artist-centric movie, the target audience is fans but given its relative box office success PART OF ME appears to have also touched other demographics. Part of the appeal is Perry herself, who is clearly a nice person: she gives time to her fans, offers jobs to friends on her tour, and is bloody lovely to look at. The main issue is her hyperactivity: it’s tremendously annoying and becomes tiresome about three minutes in –  87 minutes later you’ll be thoroughly exhausted. But as frustrating as her character traits become, it’s hard not to enjoy PART OF ME. Perry’s group puts everything it has on stage almost every night for a year – the fact the music is hideous does temper it slightly, but the outfits ensure a ‘semi’ enjoyment for roughly two-thirds of the duration, and that mark hasn’t been met since the last episode of THE GOLDEN GIRLS.

PART OF ME is at its most effective when looking at Perry and Brand’s marriage troubles. Managing to put on a brave face for her fans is admirable – even heartwarming – and will give even non-fans a bit more respect for the future Mrs Carey. The sad thing about the film is that it relies on Perry’s life falling to pieces for it to be fully immersive; but then this is the nature of film be it fact or fiction, we need the drama. Perhaps more bubblegum is needed?

Extras: A full performance of ‘Last Friday Night’ is ok for fans. Grandma ‘Thinking Of You’, and BFF are videos that seem a bit out of place on the DVD and are almost like an intrusion.

KATY PERRY: PART OF ME is released on Blu-ray and DVD 5th November