JANIS: LITTLE GIRL BLUE (Amy Berg). 103 minutes. Opens Friday (February 5). See listing. Rating: NNNN
Amy Berg’s thorough documentary on blues-rock legend Janis Joplin has many things going for it, including unprecedented access to Joplin’s letters and to her family and friends, who speak candidly about the famed singer/songwriter.
But it’s the footage of the charismatic Joplin herself that makes this pic so exhilarating. Early performances are gloriously incendiary, but the multi-talented artist also was a painter in high school and a surprisingly deep thinker with uncommon intelligence.
Drugs eventually took her down. She got into meth at 19 after the heavy young woman with bad skin who was shunned by her peers escaped Port Arthur, Texas for Haight-Ashbury. Though she cleaned up during a two-year stint back home, she never was able to kick her habit. It didn’t help that she was surrounded by hangers-on who enabled her drug use.
If you’re like me and were baffled by the omission of her performance from the original cut of the iconic doc Woodstock, you’ll appreciate the footage taken of her there. Stoned on heroin, thanks to her enabler friend Peggy Caserta, she was godawful.
