By Louis StaplesOptions correspondent
An autobiographical musical rom-com motion sci-fi? That is what the pop diva has made along with her newest movie That is Me… Now: A Love Story – and it is in contrast to the rest on the market.
With regards to so-called “triple threats” – a performer who can act, sing and dance – Jennifer Lopez is on the prime of the checklist. Since she rose to prominence in 1997, along with her Golden Globe-nominated lead position in Selena – the biographical musical movie about Tejano music star Selena Quintanilla-Pérez – Lopez (or J-Lo, as she is usually identified) has excelled in any respect three.
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This Is Me… Now: A Love Story – a 65-minute lengthy narrative-driven musical movie, directed by Dave Meyers – is Lopez’s newest cinematic providing, which drops on Amazon Prime video on Friday alongside her album of the identical title. The movie is an impressively high-budget spectacle that showcases every of her expertise, whereas additionally introducing her as a screenwriter and story creator.
Centring music from the brand new album, it’s half music video, half romcom, half motion film, because the central character – a hopeless romantic who appears to be loosely based mostly on Lopez – tries to work out why she’s been so unfortunate in love. (Lopez has been married 4 instances.) There’s a heavy sci-fi affect too, with Lopez drifting out and in of the previous, current, dream scenes, and a fantasy-style future.
When the trailer and idea for This Is Me… Now: A Love Story first dropped, lots of people on-line thought it appeared and sounded utterly “bonkers“. And it’s, at factors: Lopez is watched over by a squad of guardian angels – together with Jane Fonda, Kim Petras and Trevor Noah – who use astrology to assist her, whereas bickering, making snappy quips and referencing right now’s popular culture, like Bravo actuality present Vanderpump Guidelines.
And why should not Lopez have her personal eccentric feature-length movie? And with an all-star supporting forged, additionally together with Keke Palmer and Sofia Vergara? In a profession spanning 4 many years, she has bought hundreds of thousands of information and appeared in numerous movies that, mixed, have generated greater than $1billion on the field workplace. She carried out on the 2020 presidential inauguration – and even starred in her personal Las Vegas residency.
The inexperienced Versace costume Lopez wore to the 2000 Grammy Awards is the rationale Google Photographs exists. (The phrase “iconic” could be very overused nowadays, however that’s absolutely deserving of it.) It may appear unusual to place somebody so achieved as an underdog. However Lopez has been incessantly missed all through her profession – whether or not it is being “snubbed” by the Oscars for her position in Hustlers, or having to share her 2020 Tremendous Bowl halftime present with Shakira, when each ladies deserved to headline on their very own.
What it has to say
That is Me… Now’s a part of a wave of flicks from right now’s greatest pop divas. Final 12 months, each Beyoncé and Taylor Swift launched hit live performance motion pictures, the place followers queued up in costume to look at their current sold-out excursions in cinemas. However what Lopez presents is completely different. Equally to Beyonce’s 2016 visible album, Lemonade, it seems like a manner for Lopez to take up more room – and be seen – on her personal phrases.
All through her profession, Lopez’s personal romantic life has incessantly turn out to be an leisure spectacle of its personal, like her whirlwind reunion with Affleck, who she was initially engaged to in 2004, earlier than breaking it off. The 2021 reunion of “Bennifer”, which culminated in a 2022 Las Vegas wedding ceremony, was one of many nice popular culture moments of current instances. (In case you have been questioning, sure: Affleck fleetingly seems within the movie). Lopez’s sophisticated romantic life is the movie’s major inspiration. “Once I was a little bit woman, each time somebody requested me what I wished to be once I grew up,” Lopez says proper at first, “my reply was all the time: ‘in love’.”
Narrative-wise, the general message of the movie appears confused. There’s a number of speak of astrology, and about expertise ruining relationships. And there are many clichés about love. “What’s love and why do we want it?” appears to be a central query. The movie’s recurring metaphor casts Lopez as a crimson rose searching for a hummingbird (based mostly on a Puerto Rican story the place roses and hummingbirds symbolise younger lovers who have been tragically separated).
It begins with an animated storybook introduction, with Lopez’s voice narrating the story, persevering with with frequent references to flowers and birds all through. The movie’s apparent fairytale influences are interspersed with references to Lopez’s personal life story, which represents one other folklore favorite: the American Dream. “Flowers don’t develop within the Bronx,” says her first crush, to which she responds: “Generally they do.”
Amongst the singing, dancing, and the movie’s many hurtling scene adjustments, its central assertion is that Jennifer Lopez is actually, actually proficient. It elevates her new music – particularly title observe That is Me… Now, which is the premise for a surprising showpiece spectacle. Janet Jackson-inspired choreography, a euphoric narrative arc and otherworldly visuals information Lopez in direction of her rom-com ending, the place she lastly finds her “hummingbird” – who, once we get a glimpse of him, appears lots like a sure Hollywood actor.
Lopez has hinted that her newest album could be her final. “The reality is I don’t even know if I’ll ever make one other album after this,” she instructed Leisure Tonight final week, saying that she feels “fulfilled” by the “quintessential J-Lo undertaking”. The movie does really feel like a retrospective show of her skills, however it additionally makes us take into consideration future work Lopez might do in arenas she has but to overcome. (If I used to be a casting director, I’d be snapping her up for a sci-fi blockbuster ASAP.)
No matter reception it will get, essentially the most attention-grabbing factor about This Is Me… Now : A Love Story is its format and the artistic management it has given Lopez. It has simply been revealed the movie and album might be adopted in a few weeks by a 3rd a part of the That is Me… undertaking, a documentary referred to as The Biggest Love Story By no means Advised, which may also be launched on Prime Video. The streaming period offers new alternatives for artists like her to place their work on the market in several methods – to take up house (and run a victory lap) after refusing to be written off. Lopez’s profession exists on the assembly level between music, movie, style, and modern tradition. By creating her personal movie, this rose is making certain she lastly will get her flowers.
That is Me… Now: A Love Story is launched on Amazon Prime Video on 16 February.
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