Directed By Lisa Cortes

Starring – John Waters, Mick Jagger, Tom Jones

The Plot – Tells the origin story of Richard Penniman, or better known to his fandom: Little Richard. Through a wealth of archive and performance that brings us into Richard’s complicated inner world, the film unspools the icon’s life story with all its switchbacks and contradictions. In interviews with family, musicians, and cutting-edge Black and queer scholars, the film reveals how Richard created an art form for ultimate self-expression, yet what he gave to the world he was never able to give to himself.

The film is currently not rated

Little Richard: I Am Everything Trailer #1 (2023) – YouTube

POSITIVES

For my money, documentaries have always served real stories and artists better than cinematic biopics because they have the ability to dig deeper and elicit bigger, and the same can certainly be said for Cortes’ second feature behind the lens, conjuring an ode to Little Richard that essentially establishes him as the greatest stage entertainer of all time. Blessed with an abundance of TV interviews, intimiate photography, and expressive editing choices, Cortes channels a presentation that not only invokes the soul of its titular character, in what feels like a 96 minute resurrection that feels like he’s talking directly at us from beyond the grave, but also vivid articulation towards the many atmospheres and settings that Richard’s story took him, often with prejudical hatred towards both his skin color and sexuality that felt threatening to his deep southern upbringing. But while Lisa’s work in front of the camera is seductively spellbinding for the way her visuals compliment the expansion of the art exceptionally, it’s her storytelling itself that is most provocatively audacious, both in a detailed summary of gay musicianship in the 1950’s, with its underground popularity, but also in the internal struggle from within Richard himself, which isn’t afraid to toe the line of complimentary and revealing simultaneously. While I expected to learn much about Richard’s life on and off the screen due to my ignorance in the lack of knowledge that I sadly don’t know about him, I was shocked at just how far back Cortes pulls back the curtain, with conflicts about a lack of celebration for his role in the evolution of Rock and Roll music, which leads to unapologetic insights to white artists shamefully borrowing from Richard for their own monetary gain, but also in the irony of an expressive man on stage feeling anything but comfortable in a daily life that unfortunately and tragically defined the freedom that he yearned so vocally for in his lyrics. Because of such, I felt all of the pain, confliction and even humility for the musician often hiding the truth from an audience too clever to be deceived, and when balanced with the inspirational moments of the artist’s evolution, which can always be expected in documentaries about fame, I couldn’t help but feel a profound sense of regret for Richard and the many legendary black artists forgotten either by obscurity or the next big thing in the machine that always alludes to an artist being bigger and better. The film is also obviously blessed with a thorough catalog of Richard’s biggest hits persevering in the timely nature of which they were conceived within the story, but all the more immersive within the meaning of their lyrical impulses, proving Richard to be a boldly daring artist that tapped into the complexities of teenage sexuality, with his own remarkable craftsmanship in musical composing that made him must see entertainment on stage and in person. One cool side aspect to this is bringing in a few relatively unknown artists to play a few seconds of his tracks, making his music feel all the more timeless by the ways his culture still celebrates him today, while also allowing Cortes the freedom of visual expression herself, as she accommodates these musical sequences with artifical pixelated dust sprinkling over them, to give them a spiritual sense of the man watching and applauding from beyond.

NEGATIVES

However, a couple of hinderances do occasionally saturate the extent of the intention, within a compromising stucture throughout the engagement that feels episodic in the way it introduces the many arcs of Richard’s own musical journey. One of the things that often bothers me with certain documentaries is how they will frequently fade to black when one arc concludes, before another one is introduced. In this film’s example, it not only often abruptly ends with the kind of spontaneity that disappointingly conveys that unfortunately this is all that we will receive with answers on this particular topic, but also drains the narrative’s momentum with these pocketed instances of unflattering silence that never feel naturally rendered to the structure of the storytelling, in turn padding out what is essentially another five minutes of the run time, once you add them all together. Beyond this, my only other problem with the film pertained to the final half hour, which takes Richard down some dark corridors of jealousy that don’t exactly paint him or this story in the most engaging of lights. I have absolutely no problems with painting a flawed protagonist, especially for the way it conjures humanity and humility to his approachability. However, the way it lingers on the subject of the industry’s lack of gratuity for Richard for a bit longer than it rightfully should, not only makes it stand out for all of the wrong reasons when compared to the brief and breezy emphasis of the other story arcs, but also slightly self-indulgent when it’s breaking down many other artists, while painting Richard’s own irreplacible value to the industry. I don’t debate that worth for a second, as it’s clear how many artists borrowed from him, but it’s less endearing when it’s the artist himself repeatedly stating this fact, leaving this as the only section of the film where I checked my watch.

OVERALL
“Little Richard: I Am Everything” is a compelling chronicle that cements the irreplaceable legacy of one of rock and roll’s most vibrant icons. In pulling back the curtain of vulnerabilities about Richard, Lisa Cortes reveals many unsettling truths about the business and the many visionary ghosts that it has tragically left behind, cementing itself as not only the quintessential project about Richard Perriman, but also an urgent plea to the business to shut up and finally make matters right.

My Grade: 8/10 or B+