Sara Bareilles: Good Grief

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles says she believes music is “of the soul.” Her new documentary has so much music, heart, creativity, and love that viewers will feel privileged Bareilles has opened her soul to us. The often-self-deprecating performer likely would puncture that with a wry aside or an expletive—plenty of which are on display here. (“You know when you’re caffeinated and for ten minutes, everything is possible?” she says at one point.) In limited release, this roughly ninety-minute film follows about a week of recording sessions for her new album, titled Good Grief, at Dreamland Recording Studios in Hurley, New York. Yet it’s impossible to watch Sara Bareilles: Good Grief without feeling humbled not just by Bareilles’s vocal range and lyrical talents but her willingness to engage with the uncomfortable, painful subject of loss.