Vague Visages’ Linda Perry: Let It Die Here review contains minor spoilers. Don Hardy’s 2024 documentary features Linda Perry, Dolly Parton and Christina Aguilera. Check out the VV home page for more film reviews, along with cast/character summaries, streaming guides and complete soundtrack song listings.

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In the digital age, many creatives — both young and old — like to glamorize their “process” on social media while casually referencing interactions with therapists. In the real world, however, plenty of people deal with such issues behind closed doors. For Linda Perry, the former lead singer of 4 Non Blondes (a band best known for their 1993 hit single “What’s Up?”), her private struggles correlate with childhood issues involving her mother, evidenced by numerous personal commentaries in Don Hardy’s fantastic 2024 documentary Linda Perry: Let It Die Here. Aesthetically, the film reminds of Brett Morgen’s 2015 HBO production Cobain: Montage of Heck through its animated interludes, with the main difference being that Perry is fortunately still around to discuss her hopes, fears and dreams for the future.

Linda Perry: Let It Die Here primarily focuses on the subject’s experiences as a queer woman and music producer/songwriter. Early on, the five-time Grammy Award nominee describes a guitar collection as her own “little audience.” And from act to act, there’s very much a train-of-thought element as Perry shifts from commentaries about her “fucking mess” of a family to “lesbian parties” in 90s Hollywood to the concept of “accepting the unknown.” But the core conflict revolves around Perry’s struggle to find peace of mind as an adult. First, she forgives herself for past mistakes. Later in the first act, Perry acknowledges her “rock star” brother’s influence on her hard-as-nails persona. Ultimately, though, the subject addresses the abuse she endured as a child that prevented her from becoming a mother until age 50. “I don’t even know what I’m hustling to get,” Perry says in Hardy’s doc — a moment that speaks to her creative ambition and need to resolve personal issues through art.

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Editor Camille Getz creates a smooth flow in Linda Perry: Let It Die Here, both with the animated sequences and personal commentaries. At times, it’s unclear who’s behind the camera, so there’s a performance aspect to consider. After all, Perry is indeed an entertainer. However, the most dramatic moments in Hardy’s documentary appear genuine; a testament to the subject’s “raw and real” approach that singer Christina Aguilera discusses during a first act sequence.

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In Linda Perry: Let It Die Here, various musical artists — including Dolly Parton and Brandi Carlile — speak highly of the subject, and the most telling moments transpire when Perry interacts with fellow musicians during recording sessions. While producing the documentary’s title song, the 4 Non Blondes singer immediately analyzes the physical space between collaborators and says, “I feel like we’re a little too ‘stadium,'” resulting in a more intimate environment. By the end of the session, Perry gently weeps while singing about her late mother, with a giant hat covering her face and tears. Later, she reaches this epiphany: “I don’t have to prove myself to my mom anymore. I can just be me. And how interesting is that?” Linda Perry: Let It Die Here is full of bittersweet anecdotes.

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Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Linda Perry: Let It Die Here is the subject’s tender side. She quite literally wears a rock star hat, much like the late David Foster Wallace wore a comforting bandana, but Perry acknowledges the need to “choose love” while sorting through all of her personal issues, with the biggest challenge as an adult being a breast cancer diagnosis and a subsequent double mastectomy.

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Some creative minds poetically muse about stripping everything down to the basics yet still struggle to show a vulnerable side. In Hardy’s documentary, the subject quite literally bares all. Linda Perry: Let It Die Here is a moving study of female self-empowerment and perseverance.

Linda Perry: Let It Die Here premiered at the Tribeca Festival on June 6, 2024.

Q.V. Hough (@QVHough) is Vague Visages’ founding editor.

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