BLOGS
Everyone seems shocked that Madonna is turning 50 this year. Fifty! And she looks so good! Well, duh. She's a bazillionaire. Recording and touring are gruelling affairs, but it's not like she's been carrying 50-pound sacks of rice on her back in the blazing hot sun all of her life. During an interview last night, Cynthia McFadden even compared her to geezer rockers Mick Jagger and David Bowie. (She meant it in a good way, but still. Cynthia.) But it seems the focus is -- for the moment -- turning away from the relentless march of time and toward Madonna's Malawi documentary, I Am Because We Are.
The film was met with "general acclaim" when the singer-turned-documentarist presented it recently at the Festival de Cannes, according to The Guardian. No specifics are given as to what exactly this means or who's been generally handing out the acclaim. One early review after the Tribeca Film Festival praises Madonna's goals, but calls the documentary itself "much too facile" and refers to her narration as "clipped," "insincere," and "self-serving" when she compares the plight of the Malawi people to her own experiences with suffering. Another review criticizes her narrative for being "delivered with so little enthusiasm, or at least engagement" and calls the script (written by Madonna herself) "rife with banalities." Perhaps the audiences in Cannes were more receptive, as those sound pretty much like the opposite of "acclaim" to me.
Madonna is no stranger to criticism, of course. Before the release of 1993's Body of Evidence, novelist Patricia Cornwell had the prescience to make sure the movie bore a disclaimer stating that it was not based on her book of the same title, and you could just about line the Bronx Zoo's bird houses with all the bad reviews for Swept Away. Compared to that, the negative critique for her documentary seems no more dramatic than turning another year older.
For more Cannes Film Festival news, check out The Art of the Cannes!
Add a comment
Search thousands of recaps and more
BLOG ARCHIVES
The Moviefile
December 2008
9 Entries
November 2008
61 Entries
October 2008
102 Entries
September 2008
86 Entries
August 2008
99 Entries
July 2008
116 Entries
June 2008
95 Entries
May 2008
86 Entries
April 2008
67 Entries
March 2008
14 Entries
Blog Categories
A Festival for the Rest...ival
13 Entries
Accidents Do Happen
39 Entries
Adventures in Fakery
26 Entries
Animation Desensitization
24 Entries
Box Office Tally
47 Entries
Cool Nerds Guide
2 Entries
Director? I Hardly Knew Her!
102 Entries
For Your Amusement (Park)
6 Entries
Foreign Relations
23 Entries
Girls on Film
23 Entries
I Voted for GORE!
53 Entries
I Want My DVD
23 Entries
I've Got Two Tickets to Merchandise
30 Entries
It Came From San Diego
9 Entries
It's a Major Award!
18 Entries
Legal Eaglese
14 Entries
Let's Blame the Media!
42 Entries
Let's Go To The Video!
13 Entries
Lights, Camera... Action Jackson!
43 Entries
Little TV Shows That Done Hit the Big Time
44 Entries
Martial Artistry
4 Entries
Momentous Occasions
18 Entries
Musicalifornication
22 Entries
Obituaries Without Pity
10 Entries
Pros and Controversy
8 Entries
Reviews of Movies We've Actually Seen
27 Entries
Scary Monsters & Super Creeps
11 Entries
Sci-Fidelity
39 Entries
Script From the Headlines!
50 Entries
Separate but Sequel
140 Entries
Strike Watch
13 Entries
Stupid Cinematic Celebrity Sayings
32 Entries
Taste the Reading Rainbow
45 Entries
The Art of the Cannes
6 Entries
The Biz
96 Entries
The Casting Conch
133 Entries
The History, Booooyyyyy!
47 Entries
The Kongs of Comedy
73 Entries
Theatre With an "R" and an "E"
8 Entries
Top of the
0 Entries
Top of the MWoP
4 Entries
Trailer Trashing
22 Entries
Video Games Killed the Movie Star
13 Entries
We Call Do-Over
100 Entries
We Watches the Watchmen
22 Entries
What's Up, Documentary?
3 Entries
You Got Comic Book in My Movie
152 Entries
You Know, For Kids!
55 Entries