I remember first becoming a fan of Cyndi Lauper when the BBC put on her 'Live in Paris' show on late night telly one Saturday back in the summer of 1989. The show really illustrated what a dynamic live performer she was and reminded me of some of the quality tunes she had in her back catalogue. The unfortunate thing was that, just as I was fully embracing her music, her career was beginning a definite downturn, as her latest album of the time 'A Night to Remember' was doing decidedly less good business that the previous two, which didn't seem all that surprising at the time given that, unlike 'She's So Unusual' and 'True Colors', the new record was dangerously close to Phil Collins territory. Consequently Cyndi's sense of fun was completely absent in this adult contemporary hell. Her music career never really recovered in the intervening years but she had a few other strings to her bow, such as winning an Emmy, a Tony and successfully campaigned for various human rights issues.
This documentary looks at Cyndi's life and career, with unsurprisingly a particular emphasis on the 'She's So Unusual' era, which was the period where she became a superstar. There's some interesting detail in the early pre-fame days, including her time with the band Blue Angel. The detail becomes fuzzier from the 'True Colors' era onwards though, with increasingly more emphasis being put on the activism as opposed to music. There's no getting away from the fact it is a very one-sided take on this artist, with nothing too contentious included. The doc is far from being alone in this regard, as many adopt this approach but it does mean as a narrative it can be a bit lacking at times on account of this. The format is of the talking heads variety and it did seem a bit of a shame that beyond Cyndi's collaborators and inner circle, the only famous talking head was Boy George - it would certainly have been interesting to have heard more perspectives. There is a good enough selection of old clips and stills used to add texture and the story overall is well enough told for sure, even if it sometimes feels a little bit haphazard and could have been a little more sharply focused overall. But the most important aspect is that this has been made at all, as Cyndi Lauper most definitely deserves a film made about her, as her talents as a voice and performer have been massively under-acknowledged for the most part. One of the rare examples where I do recall her talents being recognised was when a reviewer from the NME reviewed the John Lennon tribute concert back in 1990 which featured all manner of artists; the review - which was overwhelmingly negative otherwise - singled out Lauper's performance of 'Working Class Hero' as being easily the highlight and said it was in fact the best stage presence he had witnessed since seeing Prince live several years before. High praise coming from Britain's premier hipster music weekly of the time but definitely well deserved.
