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Somewhere between “The Last Waltz” and “Truth or Dare,”the last of the true concert documentaries died.
Like all things that start out great, raw, honest and real, the concert tour movie (think the harrowing “Gimme Shelter”) has devolved into a vanity, must-have project for superstars not just to control the image, but to push the merch before a big multi-bazillion dollar tour begins.
While some — like “This Is It,” the backstage making of what was to be Michael Jackson’s triumphant comeback tour— can be great, unfortunately most aren’t.
Jackson’s last documentary stands out as a startling and riveting because, in large part, Jackson wasn’t micro-managing. It is a shocking thing to see a man just before his death, coming to life on stage like he hadn’t done in 20 years.
That same can’t be said for “Life Is But A Dream,” the 90-minute self-directed Beyoncé documentary that debuts Saturday night on HBO.
Disappointingly it reveals as much about her personally as a music video. A very looong music video, which, when the music isn’t playing, is filled with video diary entries in which Beyoncé talks into her laptop like a reality show participant.
The doc begins with home movies of Beyoncè and her sister as kids playing outside their gorgeous Texas childhood home.
She talks about how difficult it was to “breakup” with her dad who pushed her and managed her and made her great.
But, she tells us, it’s tough to be managed by your dad because there’s no unrelieved family time.
There is much behind-the-scenes footage of the chaos before each show with lots of pre-show hysteria of the “We don’t know what we’re doing!” and “We’re not ready!” variety. This is supposed to manipulate us into thinking, “Oh no! This show will never work!”
Of course, it always works, it’s always flawless and that’s when the film is also flawless.
But since Beyoncè is controlling the action, too often, there is no there there.
The biggest star on the planet laments a life lived in public, and talks about how people used to be able just to listen to singers like the glorious Nina Simone without the media frenzy.
“[Fans] didn’t get brainwashed [by the hype],” she says. “It wasn’t about what her child was wearing and who she was dating.”
It used to be only about the music, she says, without the static of hype filling up their minds.
Why Beyoncè then made a documentary to hype her latest tour, I can’t say.
We learn that Beyoncè is madly in love with her husband and child, that she considers herself the luckiest woman in the world and she’s learning to stop pretending that she has it all together. Huh?
Call me naive but if being deliriously happy, being the top entertainer in the world while doing what you love most to do and having a beautiful baby doesn’t qualify as having it all together, what must she think of the rest of us stiffs?
What’s not here is any grit.
What happened with Destiny Child? How did she begin? How did she meet Jay-Z?
Can’t say.
She talks about her miscarriage and God and her life, but in a controlled way.
“Life Is But A Dream” is a vanity project that could have been a helluva film — if she had given up control and let the story tell itself.
Next time she should bring in a Martin Scorsese type to direct. Truthfully, we dare her!