You know how sometimes you know a movie won’t be for you but you go watch it anyway? No…well, uhhh, this is awkward…Well anyway, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t enjoy this movie as I’m almost entirely neutral on the subject of Katy Perry (a lot of her soaring pop anthems might as well be elevator music for all the attention I pay to them, neither good nor bad), but I watched it anyway. And I can report I was surprised…I wasn’t neutral on this film, I downright hated it.
What Works: If you’re a fan of her music (either a 12 year old girl, or a very gay boy), you might have a good time with this film. I’ve never been big on concert films because mostly they suck—-you just can’t replicate the feeling of being at a concert on film, but the crowd of a whopping three people that were in the theater when I saw this (on a Saturday) seemed to have a good time. Of course, I can’t say I did…
What Doesn’t Work: The entire persona and mythology of Katy Perry, the bullshit paradox of being “just a good Christian girl next door” with blue hair and a firework bra. The film keeps hitting you over the head with what a “real” person Katy is but how many real people do you know who act like the sluttiest CandyLand character never made? We never see her doing a remotely real thing (she’s raised as a freak by two devout Jesus swindlers…I mean, evangelists, then begins performing at a too young age, then launches into super-stardom after a couple years), so to hear how authentic she is really struck me as false. Not to mention that Katy never really develops into a personality…she’s all fake “goofy” slapstick and wonder-eyed bimbo, laying on the “human Barbie” persona that sets feminism back 30 years every time she’s on stage. This is the face of the post-feminist princess, a woman who uses her sexuality in every way possible (the dumb-girl sexpot act to get fame and fortune) but refuses to really claim it. Even her busted marriage to Russell Brand has her experiencing pain the shallowest way possible (going from giggle fits to crying jags) without any real depth into who this person is…and I think that’s because the answer couldn’t fill a 97 minute long movie.
What I Would Have Done Differently: At best, this can be experienced as a journey into the cynical world of a professional “performer” and the package that is more image than singer, as Katy is the all-too-familiar mix of fake warmth and very real self-absorption we’ve come to expect in the post-Britney Spears era.