Pink: All I Know So Far shows us an artist and a mother who handles every aspect of her life with the same love, dedication and humanity, and an undying desire to be true to herself.
If you’ve ever seen P!nk live, you’ll know that her concerts are unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. From her 2000 solo debut Can’t Take Me Home to her rawer, more emotional albums The Truth About Love (2012) and Beautiful Trauma (2017), Pink has taken us through different stages of her life with the same earnestness, empathy and nonconformity that has earned her the admiration of generations of fans all over the world, and her live performances are no different. You don’t just go to a Pink concert for the incredibly elaborate (and physically demanding!) choreographies, as well as the chance to hear your favourite songs live. You go to a Pink concert to spend time with an artist who has never shied away from showing us exactly who she is, whether it’s through her meaningful lyrics, by being outspoken on social media, by making a power point presentation for her daughter to teach her about androgynous beauty and identity, or by singing her truth to millions of people, and establishing a connection with every single one of them in the process.
And it is, indeed, a different, magical kind of atmosphere one can breathe at a Pink concert, just like the attendees are more than a bunch people who happen to like her music. Thanks to her earnest lyrics and her unique style and grit, Pink never fails to be “unfiltered and loud, [and] proud of that skin full of scars”, to cite her latest single. It’s by being true to herself and doing things her own way that the singer gets to us, embodying generations of young women who have grown up with her, and continue to do so to this day.
Just like the singer herself, Michael Gracey’s (The Greatest Showman) documentary Pink: All I Know So Far is more than just one thing. On one hand, the film documents the European leg of Pink’s 2019 “Beautiful Trauma” world tour, taking us behind the scenes of an incredibly challenging, hectic, sold-out stadium tour that saw the performer lead a team of more than 200 singers, dancers, musicians, roadies and managers, all while dealing with unexpected turns of events and rehearsing her own routines across 23 locations, including London’s 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium.
But Pink isn’t one of those artists who “walk out the door to go to work”, as she puts it: the musician refuses to leave her family at home when she goes on tour, which is why her husband, Carey Hart, and her two children, Willow Sage Hart and Johnson Moon Hart, have joined her on the tour. And so, Pink uses her concerts as opportunities to “make memories together”, going sightseeing in between rehearsals and experiencing every moment spent with her family as much as she can. It’s an incredibly demanding schedule, and, in Pink: All I Know So Far, we see her battle exhaustion and gather up the energy not only to play with her kids and cater to their needs, such as bath time and family meals, but also to actually listen to them, and to make sure they know that they are heard.
If Pink’s spectacular performances require her to multitask, facing the challenge of having to reach certain notes while also having to remember a physically demanding routine, so does her private life. Not only does the musician need to constantly juggle her professional life with her private one, ensuring she dedicates as much time to being a singer as she does to being a mother and a wife, but, as a woman who’s also a boss, she also has to make twice the effort to get people to respect her, leading by example and surrounding herself with the right people. Gracey’s film sets forth to explore all sides of the beloved singer by showing her be a mother, a wife, a boss, and a performer, and, at that, it absolutely succeeds. Combining clips from rehearsals, intimate interviews, live performances and incredibly endearing footage of Pink with her family, the documentary shows us that Pink’s infectious energy requires constant, conscious efforts, and makes us admire her all the more for her insightful views on life and parenthood, for her willingness to take risks, and for her unceasing desire to do things her own way.
At the same time, perhaps not entirely intentionally, All I Know So Far also show us a different Pink altogether, the one that comes through in the rawest, most vulnerable moments of the film, when her observations begin to say less about her family and more about the singer’s own childhood. When Pink describes how demanding it is to make the experience of the tour perfect not just for the fans who attend her concert but also for her children, she talks about her wish to “reach inside [herself] and hug that little girl, and just let her know it’s gonna be ok”. Later in the film, the musician observes that there’s a moment when children realise that their parents are human, and that they “can’t love you perfectly: they can’t even love themselves”. In another emotional scene, she remembers her own mother saying to her that she “just never knew that parenting could be this enjoyable until [she] saw [Pink] do it”.
Yes, the documentary is a successful exploration of Pink’s many sides, but it’s also more than that. Behind the performer’s admirable approach to motherhood and family dynamics lies the self-awareness and wisdom of a person whose own childhood has, indeed, left her with her own scars to deal with. Besides being about the performer, the mother and the wife, All I Know So Far is first and foremost about what Pink calls “the truth underneath” – that is, the fact that “little Alecia” is still “hiding in there [and] learning how to heal”. And little Alecia is, indeed, a performer, a mother and a wife, but she’s also a woman who has not only grown up and found herself completely on her own, but also developed the courage to look through the pain and the fear, and to be a role model, and an example of earnestness and resiliance, to her family, as well as thousands of young women everywhere.
Gracey’s documentary is not only a celebration of Pink and everything she is and embodies, but also a meaningful, important look at an artist who has never been afraid to show us the scars she carries, as well as an encouragement to approach our own lives with that same earnestness, empathy and resilience. Both highly enjoyable and tremendously wise, Pink: All I Know So Far is a compelling look at one of the most influencial, beloved artists of our time, and a must watch for Pink fans.
PINK: ALL I KNOW SO FAR is now available to watch globally on Prime Video.
