Jagged

1995 was a great year for pop music in general, but above all it was Alanis Morissette’s year. Her groundbreaking album Jagged Little Pill broke all sales records, and at 33 million copies it’s still one of the bestselling albums ever by a female artist. The track ‘You Oughta Know’ became the anthem for anyone who had ever been dumped. Morissette didn’t mince words in this song or the others on the album either—her raw and heartfelt lyrics were a revelation. In Jagged, they get the attention they deserve. There’s also plenty of archive footage—some of it shot by Morissette herself—capturing the explosive energy of the concerts, life on the tour bus, and the insanity of fame. 

The backbone of the film is formed by an extended, meditative interview in which the singer speaks candidly about her career. We hear how she became a global phenomenon at barely 21, and about the path that took her there. She was very young when she started off in the music industry—not a safe place for a teenage girl.