P!nk: All I Know So Far review: Docu on powerhouse performer doesn’t delve deeper than the surface-Entertainment News , Firstpost


For ardent fans, it does feel though P!nk promised us personal access, she still put on a show.

Language: English

Despite all the experience of trial and error, motherhood often feels like a 100 ft acrobatic plunge; except everyone around you expects you to also have the uncomplaining grace of a Cirque du Soleil performer. Yes, it’s mighty unfair and inordinately hard as it is; coupled with the crushing responsibilities of a day job and running a household, it feels like an unending steeplechase on some days.

And then you see a trained gymnast, international pop-meets-punk rock diva and loving mother like P!nk quite literally performing said plunge; and to add salt to injury, she even sings while doing so. How unfair is that?! Surely she must have a bevy of nannies. But she doesn’t.

In All I Know So Far, Amazon Prime’s recently released documentary, powerhouse vocalist P!nk gives us behind-the-scenes access into her preparation for her 2019 Beautiful Trauma world tour, and in the process makes us privy to her trapeze-level balancing act between being a famous musician and a mom. The documentary promises to show us how we women can have it all and how hard it truly is to do so without losing our sanity. There’s a loving husband who willingly co-parents as his wife tirelessly travels and practices for shows, a rarity in the world of rock and pop that thrives on the usual broken personal stories to create relatability.

Still from P!nk: All I Know So Far

In that regard, the documentary stands as refreshingly unusual as P!nk herself. Director of The Greatest Showman, Michael Gracey, is appropriately helming the story of easily one of the greatest performers to have ever graced the stage. Because what P!nk brings to the table is the level of showmanship one might deride as conceited but is actually an intense desire for expression. And she powers the high voltage theatrics with a voice so incredible that you’re left breathless for more. What makes P!nk the icon that she is, is her unflappable attitude to fame and success, her willingness to put her body through so much rigour just to ensure her ticket-holding fans get their money’s worth, her unapologetic sense of humour, her fearless support to social causes, and her astoundingly unusual voice that spans octaves with ease. All of that can still be imagined in the world of today. But circa 2000, it was an entirely different ball game.

The pop scene then was the playground of blond-tressed singers like Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Christina Aguilera, et al, who with varying degrees of talent and success were fitting into a popstar mould that they collectively fostered. Stunning to look at, barely-there outfits and choreographed dance moves that made music videos play on loop; the pop diet at the turn of decade was carefully manufactured with an obvious air of superficiality that is frequently and unfairly associated with the genre.

Breaking into this structured artifice was Alecia Beth Moore aka P!nk with a dynamite voice, bleached hair with an unusual blow dry, an unlikely mind of her own and copious amounts of courage to pull off all that.

Her voice was like none other: imagine being a mezzo-soprano in a genre like pop that expects its singers to be hitting only high notes. She has spawned an entire generation of throaty pop-rock female vocalists who do not shy away from laying bare their true voices. Adele has famously revealed that P!nk’s performance at Brixton Academy when she was just 13 had a huge impact on her.

Even today as auto-tune rules the pop charts, P!nk has successfully spent two decades building a career on her own terms. And literally in her own voice. The rasp in her voice has given her the depth of vocal register and the necessary depth of substance making her hard to categorize as yet another flighty popstar. Yet there’s so much whimsy she’s embraced and exhibited through her performances at large and her song-writing in particular.   In the world of live music, very rarely do you find a talented performer who also has staggering depth in her voice and vice-versa.

Pnk All I Know So Far review Docu on powerhouse performer doesnt delve deeper than the surface

Still from P!nk: All I Know So Far

In the documentary, P!nk is frequently talking about timing her breathing right because she isn’t just singing and running on stage. She’s doing aerial pirouettes, she’s diving, she’s busting some mean moves and all this why flawlessly holding a note. Like she references an acrobat friend who told her why she can’t do both because she uses her diaphragm for singing while the friend uses it for all the twists and twirls. P!nk, of course, said “challenge accepted”.

In All I Know So Far, P!nk talks about the challenges of parenting while having the lifestyle that she does. In that, she is ably supported by her husband and former motocross driver Carey Hart. It is heart-warming to watch him be the “rock” in the lives of the children and P!nk’s itself, beautifully acknowledged by the singer when she says “he always shows up”. That is such a vital lesson to draw from the documentary because parenting (modern or otherwise) is truly about just being present and always, always showing up. Carey doesn’t make a big fuss over what he does because, really, he’s just raising his kids. It’s parenting, “not filling in mom”! It’s what millions of women do every single day, but we seem to make a big deal of it when a father chooses to focus on that as if it is to be lauded.

The nonchalance is so striking that it makes us look away from the fact that the documentary doesn’t delve deeper than the surface. There are issues like in any relationship, any high-pressure situation and oftentimes there are matters that are simmering. But the documentary doesn’t go beyond that to show how one lets off steam or recover if matters were to come to a head. The emotional rawness that we’re so accustomed to listening to when P!nk sings is missing in the storytelling of the documentary. It isn’t a function of duration, instead, it feels like the director chose to not push the Moore-Hart’s beyond what they’re willing to show.

For ardent fans, it does feel though P!nk promised us personal access, she still put on a show.



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