Janis: Little Girl Blue Amy Berg's documentary of the bright but sadly short life of Janis Joplin

Janis Joplin is one of the most revered and iconic rock & roll singers of all time, a tragic and misunderstood figure who thrilled millions of listeners and blazed new creative trails before her death in 1971 at age 27.

With Janis: Little Girl Blue, Oscar-nominated director Amy Berg (Deliver Us from Evil, West of Memphis) examines Joplin's story in depth for the first time on film, presenting an intimate and insightful portrait of a complicated, driven, often beleaguered artist.

In Amy Berg’s documentary “Janis: Little Girl Blue,” the sound that erupts from Janis Joplin singing the ’60s R&B classic “Cry Baby” comes as close as I’ve heard to a grown-up singer capturing a baby’s primal squall.  Stephen Holden - NYT

So it feels like a breach of historical order that Amy Berg’s thoroughly absorbing documentary “Janis: Little Girl Blue” arrives on the heels of Asif Kapadia’s comparable “Amy.” Boasting equivalent depth of research, extensive access to an intimate personal archive, and a selection of galvanizing performance footage, Berg’s film is no stylistic innovator itself, but it’s the satisfying feature-length overview that Joplin’s brief, fiercely brilliant career has long merited. Guy Lodge - Variety