Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

talisencrw This was solid and very enjoyable. My lady and I are huge classic rock and blues aficionados, and we tend to especially enjoy biopics of great musicians, so when I found out this was out, it was a natural accompaniment with a big bottle of Chilean red wine for a date night indoors. Greatly talented yet ill-starred musicians that are quickly catapulted to superstardom only to die in hideous and tragic circumstances are particularly fascinating--and Janis Joplin certainly fits the bill.I'm not sure I've seen any other of Amy Berg's works, but this was very well thought out and made. I haven't seen any other films about Janis, but in seeing this I can't see how any other could be any more definitive.Now to see the recent ones on Chet Baker, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix...

PartialMovieViewer I remember listening to Janis while she was alive, and I was not a fan during her life. Now that she has been gone for so many years, I still can't stand her. Nothing against her, I feel the same way about Morrison and the 'Doors.' Neither of these did anything for me and I certainly did not miss them. The movie/documentary is a bit pandering and over-the- top is OK...but not honest. One can not stop people on a path to self-distraction. I am so saddened and somewhat offended when troubled souls are elevated to some iconic status, marched through media tabloids as 'great' people. These folks are suffering and some had honesty might succeed in saving them. Nah...the documentary seems to miss the mark.

TxMike I found this documentary on Netflix streaming. Janis Joplin and I are contemporaries, she grew up in a conservative home in Port Arthur, Texas. At that same time I often visited my aunt in Port Arthur. Janis and I could have run into each other as kids, but we probably didn't.When you see some of the interviews with Janis you can only conclude that she was very smart and had a gift for analyzing things and presenting her ideas. Most very gifted artists, musicians, singers are very intelligent, it is part of the package. But Janis was a mediocre student in high school and was a misfit of sorts, a kind soul who couldn't or didn't want to conform. But all she ever wanted was to be accepted and loved.Perhaps her lowest point was when she went to U of Texas and she was not only nominated for the prank contest "Ugliest Man on Campus" she was voted the winner. Shortly after she left Texas and ended up in San Francisco where she found people like her. She really had no idea at first that her singing was very special but she soon became famous and things were written like "The most important new voice since Aretha Franklin." In truth I never cared for Janis Joplin's singing, too raspy and too much shouting. But there is no doubt she moved audiences and when she was in the mood had a very lovely and soft lyrical style. Her demise was a result of having absolutely no clue what to do with herself when not recording or performing. It was her life and it was just one more heroin fix in her room after a performance that cut her short in 1970 at the young age of 27.This is a superb documentary, one of the very best I have ever watched. There is much footage of Janis herself, and close-ups during performances almost bring you into her intimate world. It also has input from her brother and sister, some old friends, and some old band mates.The film is narrated by actress Cat Power who often reads from letters Janis ad written to others and it is almost like hearing Janis herself.

Alex Deleon Viewed at 2015 Venice Film Festival., "Janis, Little Girl Blue" by Amy Berg, With Alex Gibney, himself an outstanding documentarian acting as producer, is a Great Doc about a great American singer, Janis Joplin, who died too young on the verge of salvation. Interviews with parents, sister, brother, surviving members of The Grateful Dead, Kris Kristofferson, and most surprising, Dick Cavett (1970). In a year of many good documentaries, this was the best of all -- a marvelous reconstruction of a tragic young life. Janis sang the blues with such conviction and such black feeling that even afro-Americans though she was black -- She died on October 4, 1970 in a Hollywood motel of an accidental heroin overdose at age 27 -- only two weeks after another rock legend, Jimi Hendrix, also at age 27. The film traces her life from humble origins in the nondescript north Texas town of Port Arthur, constant humiliation by her schoolmates because of her extreme nonconformity and relatively plain looks, up through her rise to prominence as the lead singer of the acid/rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company --one of the leading San Francisco rock groups of the mid sixties -- reaching the pinnacle when recognized as the top white blues singer of the age, her difficulties dealing with fame, her loneliness in the midst of adoring crowds, her battle with drug addiction, and finally her tragic early death on the verge of even wider fame and general acceptance by the serious music world. Needless to say, the film is liberally spiced with clips from her amazing stage appearances, which is an added enrichment, but this is far from a mere excuse to present her songs -- far more a penetrating probe into the life of an extremely complex personality ---a true artist who became the victim of her own profound talent. Myself more or less a product of the psychedelic sixties, I left the vast Venice theater thoroughly emotionally drained and realizing I had just witnessed a remarkable film about a most remarkable life. Alex, Budapest