No wonder Morissette seemed like she came out of nowhere she came out of Canada. It was the kind of thing an episode of “Pop-Up Video” might teach you, something whispered on “TRL,” but never concrete. There was no internet to turn to, no IMDb to list her credits for “Star Search” or “You Can’t Do That on Television,” no YouTube to dig up her flashy, Debbie Gibson-esque early records. Back when Morissette broke out in 1995 with the release of “Jagged Little Pill,” her first career as a kiddie star and pop singer was the stuff of wacky legend. Youngsters watching the doc won’t quite fully appreciate the early goodies Klayman has gathered. At one point, present-day Morissette walks us through her incredibly tidy storage unit, filled with treasures like a giant bag of love letters, the first cut of “Ironic,” and the four-track recorder she made her first song on (as a literal child). Neatly assembled from a bevy of archival footage, including family photos, early interviews, and plenty of bits chronicling Morissette’s early childhood career, access was clearly not a problem. Somehow both deeply personal and offered at a distance (can anyone really speak to the truth of their lives? can anyone else get close?), “Jagged” provides a snapshot of Morissette, and music, at an important juncture.
She offers a riveting subject, both in archival footage and in a series of new interviews, but there’s always going to be something paradoxical about a person walking us through her own story.
It’s all narrated by Morissette, which makes “Jagged” appealing even as it never quite engages with some hard truths. Honesty isn’t at issue in the film, but depth might be. 'The White Lotus': Everything You Need to Know About the HBO SeriesĤ5 Directors Pick Favorite Horror Movies: Bong Joon Ho, Tarantino, del Toro and More
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'Encounter' Review: Riz Ahmed Is Unnerving in This Small Scale Disaster Movie If nothing else, “Jagged” makes one thing clear: Morissette was angry, but she was also happy and joyful and inspired and tough and driven, and if anger was the thing people latched on to, so be it. When it veers away from a predictable timeline and expected beats, “Jagged” hits its high notes.Īs was the case with Morissette’s big break, these moments come care of heightened emotion, like a series of magazine headlines that juxtapose “angry” with “hot” with a startling, queasy regularity. That’s not to say the film’s subject isn’t substantive - she is - but this focused look at Morissette’s early years seems hellbent on offering up a glossier-than-necessary veneer on a complex story. In the months following the release of Alanis Morissette’s breakout album “ Jagged Little Pill,” one question persisted throughout the glowing coverage of the singer-songwriter’s debut: Why was this gal so angry? It’s a question that director Alison Klayman (“Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry”) thoroughly answers in her well-assembled, if surprisingly basic documentary “Jagged,” but it’s refreshing to see the not- quite fawning profile engage with something a bit more substantive.