Katy Perry: Part of Me

Directors Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz follow pop diva Katy Perry on her 2011 California Dreams Tour, with side trips into biography and interviews with Perry and her family, friends and support staff. We get glimpses of Perry’s Pentecostal Christian roots, her early flings at faith-based music, the inexplicable failure of her first record label to develop her career (was there ever a more perfect example of middle-of-the-road bubblegum pop?), and most startling and touching, the collapse of her 16-month marriage to Russell Brand. It’s a sympathetic, even adoring portrait, and Perry herself comes across as likeable and unaffected. The movie also documents the undeniable fact that the star’s flashy concerts and her coquettish candy-box eroticism certainly give her wide-eyed fans their money’s worth.