NewOrleansCrazyCub (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} neworleanscub) wrote,@ 2003-08-18 16:51:00 |
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Found Art
Someone else's commentary about Madonna on IMDB.COM - I loved it so much I had to share it with you all.
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I came away from "Truth Or Dare" feeling the way I do when someone cuts me off in traffic and then gives me the finger.
This is a hard film to categorize. On the surface, it's a competent documentary, well-edited and interestingly photographed (even the grainy backstage footage).
On the other hand, the film is like having obnoxious personalities thrust at you with every turn. At the center of this carnival of hard-working but uninspired nincompoops is Madonna herself. Madonna certainly fancies herself the queen bitch, but also wants to show us that she's got a sensitive side too (like when she lies on her mother's grave in front of the camera). I had to laugh when I read other reviews that ascertained how this film shows us that Madonna is "just another human being". What did we think she was? An alien from the planet Diva?
Admittedly there's some funny stuff here. I enjoyed watching the weirdness involving Warren Beatty, especially when Madonna lost her voice and he was able to get a word in edgewise. But something really bothered me about the whole thing. For instance, for how gay-positive Madonna is supposed to be, this movie gives us the double whammy of the straight dancer Oliver deriding the gay dancers, and then shows us footage that shows how right he is--Madonna's dancers ARE irritating.
Madonna herself comes off as a self-obsessed clod, although her legions of devoted fans probably did not see this side of her when they saw this movie. Madonna has always put on airs about herself (like the phony British accent she tries to pull off these days), but here you can see her stumbling over her various phony images and fronts, like in her decidedly inarticulate speech before the show that she dedicates to Keith Haring ("...who doesn't have the luxury of being alive like we do..."). The "religious" Madonna chokes on her words and seems flustered that the camera is still rolling (she feels the need for a self-aware aside that says "I don't know why I do this to myself!"). Poor sensitive thing.
In fact she's so sensitive that her first reaction when she hears that one of her makeup staff was given a date-rape drug and sodomized is a giggle, albeit a nervous one. Then there's the infamous scene where she totally misses Kevin Costner's sense of humor and mocks him behind his back. Gad, she's so wickedly funny, isn't she? We also learn that Madonna is loyal, like when she excitedly waits to reconnect with a childhood friend, then disregards the woman when she says she'd like to name her unborn baby after Madonna.
We also discover that Madonna is an "artist" and that her music is her art. It's funny to watch Madonna and her brother, Christopher, defending the calculated stage show by calling it a "journey...you have to go through all the different parts to get to the end." He he. Looked like just a bunch of costumes, lip-syncing and elaborate stage sets to me.
I have never understood Madonna's mass appeal or why she has become as famous as she has, and "Truth or Dare" doesn't give much insight to this. In fact, she seems to have succeeded almost in spite of her bitchy attitude and her tendency to either alienate or disregard those who have befriended her or worked with her. Her music is mostly unremarkable, and she seems to want to paint herself as an individual who is relentlessly driven to succeed and gets everything she wants.
While this may be partly true, "Truth or Dare" seems to overlook the fact that Madonna is very clearly a product of a corporate entity, a mediocre recording artist who was so heavily promoted by both herself and her record label that she was bound to catch on. Madonna may have sold millions of albums off of her ability to "push peoples buttons" (as if being sexually explicit is an original idea), but you can bet a bunch of guys in suits and ties have made a lot more money off of her. Her willingness to do anything to succeed probably looked pretty good to Warner Brothers records, so they lavished her with money and promotion and let her take off like an obnoxious little kid racing a bike down a hill. The thing that "Truth or Dare" taught me about Madonna is that she was the little kid who probably pushed all the other kids off their bikes so she would get to the bottom of the hill first.
Blonde Ambition, indeed.
Someone else's commentary about Madonna on IMDB.COM - I loved it so much I had to share it with you all.
---------------------------
I came away from "Truth Or Dare" feeling the way I do when someone cuts me off in traffic and then gives me the finger.
This is a hard film to categorize. On the surface, it's a competent documentary, well-edited and interestingly photographed (even the grainy backstage footage).
On the other hand, the film is like having obnoxious personalities thrust at you with every turn. At the center of this carnival of hard-working but uninspired nincompoops is Madonna herself. Madonna certainly fancies herself the queen bitch, but also wants to show us that she's got a sensitive side too (like when she lies on her mother's grave in front of the camera). I had to laugh when I read other reviews that ascertained how this film shows us that Madonna is "just another human being". What did we think she was? An alien from the planet Diva?
Admittedly there's some funny stuff here. I enjoyed watching the weirdness involving Warren Beatty, especially when Madonna lost her voice and he was able to get a word in edgewise. But something really bothered me about the whole thing. For instance, for how gay-positive Madonna is supposed to be, this movie gives us the double whammy of the straight dancer Oliver deriding the gay dancers, and then shows us footage that shows how right he is--Madonna's dancers ARE irritating.
Madonna herself comes off as a self-obsessed clod, although her legions of devoted fans probably did not see this side of her when they saw this movie. Madonna has always put on airs about herself (like the phony British accent she tries to pull off these days), but here you can see her stumbling over her various phony images and fronts, like in her decidedly inarticulate speech before the show that she dedicates to Keith Haring ("...who doesn't have the luxury of being alive like we do..."). The "religious" Madonna chokes on her words and seems flustered that the camera is still rolling (she feels the need for a self-aware aside that says "I don't know why I do this to myself!"). Poor sensitive thing.
In fact she's so sensitive that her first reaction when she hears that one of her makeup staff was given a date-rape drug and sodomized is a giggle, albeit a nervous one. Then there's the infamous scene where she totally misses Kevin Costner's sense of humor and mocks him behind his back. Gad, she's so wickedly funny, isn't she? We also learn that Madonna is loyal, like when she excitedly waits to reconnect with a childhood friend, then disregards the woman when she says she'd like to name her unborn baby after Madonna.
We also discover that Madonna is an "artist" and that her music is her art. It's funny to watch Madonna and her brother, Christopher, defending the calculated stage show by calling it a "journey...you have to go through all the different parts to get to the end." He he. Looked like just a bunch of costumes, lip-syncing and elaborate stage sets to me.
I have never understood Madonna's mass appeal or why she has become as famous as she has, and "Truth or Dare" doesn't give much insight to this. In fact, she seems to have succeeded almost in spite of her bitchy attitude and her tendency to either alienate or disregard those who have befriended her or worked with her. Her music is mostly unremarkable, and she seems to want to paint herself as an individual who is relentlessly driven to succeed and gets everything she wants.
While this may be partly true, "Truth or Dare" seems to overlook the fact that Madonna is very clearly a product of a corporate entity, a mediocre recording artist who was so heavily promoted by both herself and her record label that she was bound to catch on. Madonna may have sold millions of albums off of her ability to "push peoples buttons" (as if being sexually explicit is an original idea), but you can bet a bunch of guys in suits and ties have made a lot more money off of her. Her willingness to do anything to succeed probably looked pretty good to Warner Brothers records, so they lavished her with money and promotion and let her take off like an obnoxious little kid racing a bike down a hill. The thing that "Truth or Dare" taught me about Madonna is that she was the little kid who probably pushed all the other kids off their bikes so she would get to the bottom of the hill first.
Blonde Ambition, indeed.
