LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING
USA 2023; 101 min; D: Lisa Cortés; NR but has frank sexual talk.
Director Lisa Cortés’ Sundance opening night documentary LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING tells the story of the Black queer origins of rock n’ roll, exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator – the originator – Richard Penniman. 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 such as Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Tom Jones, 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. Throughout his life, Richard careened like a shiny cracked pinball between God, sex and rock n’ roll. The world tried to put him in a box, but Richard was an omni being who contained multitudes – he was unabashedly everything.
“Directed with supreme love and insight by Lisa Cortés, [it] is the enthralling documentary that Little Richard deserves. It’s a movie that understands, from the inside out, what a great and transgressive artist he was, how his starburst brilliance shifted the whole energy of the culture — but also how the astonishing radical nature of what he did, from almost the moment it happened, got shoved under the rug of the official narrative of rock ‘n’ roll.” – Variety
“This is one of those instances where a film thoughtfully reexamines previously established truths about a musician’s legacy so fervently that it completely upends you.” – Huffington Post
“I enjoyed it immensely. And if you didn’t enjoy it, I’m pretty sure Little Richard would tell you to ‘Shut up.'” – Chicago Reader
SHOWTIMES: Friday 4/21, Friday 4/28 @ 7PM;
Sunday 4/23, Wednesday 4/26, Sunday 4/30, Wednesday 5/3 @1PM.
TICKETS: Adults $9; Seniors and WCUW members $7.
Cinema 320 screens in the Frontroom performance space at WCUW Radio, 910 Main Street, Worcester.
**** NOTE: The Clark University IDRISI Program parking lot is available for patron parking for evening shows and Sunday matinees. It is NOT available for the Wednesday matinees, but ample on-street parking is available along Main Street and the nearby side streets.****
Cinema 320 