Little Richard: I Am Everything review: rock icon gets his long overdue appreciation
Director Lisa Cortes overdoes the stylistic flourishes in an otherwise stellar doc about a performer whose flamboyant stage presence made him a trailblazer
For every so-called “groundbreaking” new force in music or culture, there are always multiple trailblazers behind them, paving the way and putting in the blood, sweat, and tears for some future artist to get the credit. One of the most unsung but foundational figures in rock and roll history is Little Richard, the controversial queer icon whose flamboyant stage personality foreshadowed stars like Prince, David Bowie, and Harry Styles. Lisa Cortes’ new documentary, Little Richard: I Am Everything seeks to give Richard his much-overdue credit: it’s an occasionally fanciful but insightful documentary that acknowledges Richard’s unsung brilliance and his tumultuous personal life.
The third of twelve children growing up in Macon, Georgia, in the 1940s, Richard’s trademark exuberant performance style and unapologetic acknowledgment of his sexuality were cornerstones of his stage persona from the very beginning, which clashed with his father’s conservative values. Little Richard: I Am Everything does a remarkable job of emphasizing the impact of his father’s early rejection on the rest of Richard’s career and personal life.
Though told in chronological order, Little Richard: I Am Everything employs a few recurring motifs. The most aesthetically inclined of which are segments where Richard is praised as a planetary force and a gravity-shifting being while swelling music and montages of stars dazzle us. On one hand, such praise is most certainly deserved, but it can feel as if Cortes is not content to merely rely on the performer’s merits to sell the audience on Richard.
Of course, he isn’t a hard sell—a self-proclaimed “bronze Liberace” with influences that included Sister Rosetta Thorpe, Esquerita, Clara Ward, and Marion Williams, Richard combined his powerful, energetic vocals with a meticulously crafted stage persona that combined mascara, plenty of hair gel, and eventually sequined jumpsuits in every color of the rainbow. It’s a performance style that’s been replicated by countless acts, but, as Richard himself notes, he’s barely received a crumb of the credit he deserved.