Singer/songwriter Linda Perry is vulnerable, direct, and completely honest about every aspect of her life. In the new documentary, Linda Perry: Let It Die Here, (premiering in the Spotlight+ section of the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival), director Don Hardy is allowed access to not only the musician’s creative process, but the intimacy of a woman who allows herself no secrets.

Over the past 35 years, Perry has been one of the most outspoken and hardest-working artists in the industry. Beginning with her band 4 Non-Blondes, their smash single “What’s Up”, from 1992’s Bigger, Better, Faster, More! (the group’s one and only album), took the music world by storm; her unique voice and style making her an icon. Having always been a woman who embraced change, Perry disbanded the group and reinvented herself as a Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer. The artist wrote hit-after-hit for varied types of performers such as Pink, Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion, Miley Cyrus, Weezer, The Chicks and even Dolly Parton.

Linda Perry: Let It Die Here reveals and examines Perry’s emotional issues that exist behind her edgy can-do exterior. Making no apologies nor rationalizations, she is her own harshest critic. Perry is an open book and the film goes deep into most levels of her life. Strangely, her former marriage to actress Sara Gilbert (with whom she shares a son) barely gets a mention and the actress’s on camera thoughts are too brief.

Where the film excels is how it gets to many layers of Perry’s personality. This is a woman shaped (and scarred) by tragedies in her life, yet uses her pain and self-doubt to fuel her art. The film finds Perry caring for her abusive mother who is now in her final days. Speaking frankly about the abuse she suffered as a child, it is heartbreaking to see her open up about how it tears her apart to care for this woman who showed her no love.

Conflicted is how Perry seems to spend much of her days. She constantly beats herself up (even when creating art), then gets mad at herself for doing so. This is the day to day struggle that sometimes comes close to breaking her. In the film’s most heartbreaking moment, we see Perry dancing to Supertramp’s “Take the Long Way Home”. In the self-shot video, she is dancing freely and claiming that she hasn’t done so in a long time. As the already disjointed joy turns dark, Perry breaks down at the fact it has been so long. She keeps dancing, but the joy is gone.

Perry believes she deserves her suffering. Declaring she “doesn’t know how to stop”, her anxiety becomes a partner in her process. She never lets the pain win completely, but there are times when it is overwhelming. Still, Linda Perry marches on.

Hardy’s film is quite good as he balances the more troubling aspects of Perry’s life (attempted suicide in her teens, abusive parents, past struggles with crystal meth) with her creative process. The audience is allowed to be there as she pieces together songs from just a random tune, putting words in on the spot. It is quite fascinating to witness such powerful lyrics come to her in the moment.

For the stories of her troubled life, the director uses stop motion animation that plays over Perry’s recollections. While this is a style that should have no place in serious documentaries, it works here. The gimmick is used sparingly and doesn’t take away from the power of the subject.

The tattooed and always hat-wearing Linda Perry has been so many things and has become an icon within the music industry and the LGBTQ community. To explore her place in history is inspiring. To hear her cry for help is absolutely heartbreaking. Every song written by Linda Perry gives us a glimpse into a woman whose search for identity has never ended.

Linda Perry: Let It Die Here is an involving documentary that captures a broken soul who won’t let the darkness take her. Perhaps this unique artist has begun to see a light. While her journey towards it won’t be (and hasn’t been) gentle, perhaps she will allow it to shine brighter as the years go on.

As the lyrics to her biggest hit reveal, “25 years and my life is still Tryin’ to get up that great big hill of hope For a destination…”

 

Linda Perry: Let It Die Here

Directed by Don Hardy

NR, 93 Minutes, Mercury Studios, KTF Films, Utopia Originals