The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile

Directed by Kathlyn Horan, The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile follows country-music legend Tanya Tucker as she collaborates with Brandi Carlile to record her first album of original music in almost twenty years. There’s little doubt that filmmaker Horan, for the most part, does an effective job of delivering a documentary that works for longtime fans and total neophytes, as The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile effectively introduces its subject and transforms her into a fairly compelling figure – with Horan’s decision to intersperse the proceedings with clips and stock footage of Tucker’s past exploits providing the viewer with much-appreciated background and context. It’s clear, however, that The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile is at its best when focused on the behind-the-scenes efforts to record the aforementioned album, as such sequences possess a fly-on-the-wall feel that’s enhanced by the personalities of those involved – with, of course, Tucker herself coming off as a brassy, fascinating figure that speaks her mind almost to a fault. (And it doesn’t hurt, either, that there exists plenty of fun chemistry between Tucker and Carlile.) The movie’s final third, which explores the final product’s pop-culture impact, ensures that the whole thing concludes on a tremendously satisfying note, which cements The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile’s place as a solid documentary that shines a spotlight on a deserving (and somewhat forgotten) figure.

*** out of ****