Mark Reviews Movies: THE RETURN OF TANYA TUCKER

The Return of Tanya Tucker - Featuring Brandi Carlile, Sony Pictures Classics

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 3, 2022

Director Kathyln Horan leaves us wondering what the outtakes and omitted footage must have looked like for The Return of Tanya Tucker - Featuring Brandi Carlile. There's probably a raw and honest story to be found in there—one that matches the woman whom people keep championing with those two descriptors throughout this documentary.

Tanya Tucker rose to some fame as a child singer with a number of country hits, and even though her career officially started only five years after that of Dolly Parton, Tucker fell into relative obscurity. Some of her vocal techniques—a certain twang and some growling—have become trademarks of singers since her, but few of those who followed Tucker have acknowledged it. Meanwhile, Parton became a cross-over star, a cultural icon, and an entertainment legend. Isn't it time for Tucker to take her rightful place?

That seems to be the whole point of this movie. While watching Tucker record and perform and reclaim some success is a bit fulfilling, the whole project comes across as a publicity piece.

Even the awkward title feels like a necessity of both marketing and contractual obligations. Yes, this is the story of Tucker's return, although she refuses to call it a "comeback," because she recalls how other attempts in the past had failed. With the participation of Brandi Carlile as a co-producer on the 2019 album that re-started Tucker's career, though, the movie had better be sure to include her name (She's clearly a tremendous talent, deserving of recognition for this enterprise—even if the way the movie's title acknowledges it is ungainly). Shooter Jennings, the album's other producer, probably didn't think to put that rider in his own contract.

Here, then, everything has to be—or at least look—perfect. It has to tell the story of how Tucker arrived in the studio, ready and willing and completely engaged in the recording process of While I'm Livin'. There are scenes in this movie, though, that feel staged, such as a series of conversations between Tucker and Carlile about the former's biography, since the movie has to delve into those details. Some apparently spontaneous moments don't seem quite natural, either.

In one, Tucker mentions that she just happened to be talking to Loretta Lynn on the phone the night before (She does drop names with casual skill). Isn't it strange that their conversation just happened to be about a song that Tucker just happened to write recently? She has some of the lyrics, the chorus, and even the melody for the tune ready to go.

Tucker may still have the ability to belt out a tune on the first take—although we might start to question that aspect of the filming of the recording session, too. She's not, though, convincing enough as an actor to make us believe that this song—the one from the album that becomes the crux of her creative and awards-based resurgence—just sprang into near-complete form from a single phone conversation the previous night.

In the studio scenes, things feel manufactured, especially when we start to hear just a bit about Tucker's past. She was one of the "outlaws" of country, whose off-stage antics got them a reputation for bad behavior that heightened the appeal of their music. Since Tucker is a woman, though, that reputation ended up hurting her.

She wanted to be like Elvis Presley, wearing elaborate suits and making bold entrances on stage, at a time that women singers were expected to wear long dresses. She was a rebel, though, and Tucker, like everyone else here, is hesitant to really dig into subjects such as drug—and possibly alcohol, although the tequila in the studio is plentiful—addiction, her relationship with a two-decades-older Glenn Campbell, and whatever it is she means when she talks about her late father's methods of criticism.

We get the sense that there's a lot more going on with Tucker, and some of that becomes clearer and more obvious once the album has been recorded. Carlile tries to set up a listening party with the singer, who is visibly uncomfortable at the thought of hearing the results. In the rehearsals for a star-studded birthday concert for Lynn, Tucker is a no-show for her call time. When she arrives without an explanation, we can almost imagine the scene in between, in which someone from Carlile's team or among the filmmakers got in touch with Tucker's people to let them know how bad this looks. People will accept a rebel—but only so far and definitely not when it comes to trying to sell the notion of the professional comeback of a natural professional.

The Return of Tanya Tucker - Featuring Brandi Carlile doesn't work as a biography of the singer, to be sure, and as an examination of recording and selling an album, it's too clearly focused on the latter part. The movie itself will surely sell a few more, and that seems to be its primary purpose.

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