Diving into JLo’s Musical Odyssey
Jennifer Lopez just loves to be in love, is that so wrong? This is Me Now love story is the visual extravaganza representation of the “This Is Me Now” album from Jennifer Lopez. It is streaming on Prime Video. I suspect that Alonzo and I are going to have very different opinions of this movie. One thing I can say for certain though is I’m not in this one, there automatically do point from it. Boo! Doesn’t she know you’re the real star here? You know what? We just couldn’t get our schedules coordinated.
You know, I had conflicts, I had prior engagements. You couldn’t be one of the signs of the zodiac. I should be Virgo, right? ‘Cause I’m super tidy and uptight all the time. If you’re not subscribed yet, we’d love it if you would. It’s February, and there’s not a lot of great stuff out there. But we’ll always find interesting movies for you to ponder. And “This Is Me Now: Love Story” is that. Not all love stories have a happy ending.
Charting JLo’s Journey (This Is Me Now)
Turn up! Jennifer Lopez has an album out called “This Is Me Now”. This is like a series of music videos strung together. It has a plot of her looking for love. Dave Meyers, a legendary music video director, directed the film. You have seen his work over the years. Some of his videos are Missy Elliot’s “Work It” and “Get Your Freak On,” Outcast’s “Bombs Over Baghdad,” Katy Perry’s “Firework,” and Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy.” So um, but he’s done some Jennifer Lopez videos as well. It’s a confessional kind of thing. I mean, it reveals vulnerability, yet she maintains control and looks perfect at all times.
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Ambition, Creativity, and Batshit Crazy Brilliance
It’s Jennifer Lopez who goes to therapy but the therapist is Fat Joe, you know? Yes, those are kind of amusing moments. So it’s a series of videos and it’s about her, you know, alluding to… She’s known as Artist, not Jennifer. It’s how she explores her romances, including her marriages. In one song, she blends all three grooms, including Derek Huff.
Her friends think she has a love addiction. Meanwhile, an astrological council of superstars, like Jane Fonda and Sophia Vergara, watches from on high. So eventually it’s her like journey toward love, her journey toward happiness, and um, that includes Ben Affleck, kind of. You see him at the beginning in a symbolic kind of crash. You know, the rush, the crash. Later on, you see his square jaw.
Navigating Self-Indulgence and Artistic Instincts
I dug this because it is so batshit crazy. I admire the ambition and bonkers nature of it. It is quite beautiful, with some very inspired images here. But, it is disingenuous to suggest that she’s truly naked and vulnerable here. She is notoriously meticulous and controlling about everything. I don’t blame her, you know. She’s an empire. You wouldn’t leave anything to chance, especially in telling your own story.
I don’t think we’re getting the full Jennifer Lopez here, and it’s a vanity project. It’s a strange one. I was never bored. It moves well. It reminds me that there’s some part of Jennifer that has an instinct for choosing weird stuff. Remember when she did Tarsam’s “The Cell”? That was cool. You know, that was cool. This is cool at times too. I’d rather see her follow her artistic instincts with something like this than another bland rom-com. In the rom-com, she’s pretending to have chemistry with Owen Wilson.
Unveiling Layers and Seeking Fulfillment
It’s funny we just talked about “Crossroads” because that’s coming to Netflix this week. I was connecting this to that in that I think “Crossroads” is a movie that works best if you are already down for Britney and you love her. If you support her and just want to see her in a movie and sing some songs, you know to be there for her. If you were not already a fan of Britney, maybe that movie won’t grab you.
To me, I think it’s sort of like if you are on the Jennifer Lopez train and you want to hear the new songs. If you’re interested in the insights she’s willing to share about her private life in the album, and then in this feature-length commercial for the album, then yes, you’ll be down for that. You’ll just want to see her in the outfits and revealing some things. If you’re not already interested in her as a musician, this is gonna just seem self-indulgent.
Love Pain, Literal Heart (This Is Me Now)
Because it kind of is, it’s very naval-gazing. It’s very much about, like, a mind-com of, you know, I’ve loved too much and too indiscriminately, and I’ve suffered for it. For people who need a trigger warning, there is a depiction of physical and spousal abuse in this movie (This is Me Now). It pops up and sort of like, “Oh, OK. So, this isn’t just going to be like, you know, musical fun times.”
I found some of the music videos a little on the nose. Like, she has this song called “Hearts and Flowers” and it’s all set inside a giant mechanical heart that runs with flower petals. So, if the petals go away, the heart stops. It’s like too many layers. The stuff with the all-star cast doing the camping it up is the Zodiac. A little of that went a long way. I want to know Neil deGrasse Tyson’s thoughts about astrology.
Whitney’s Lesson, JLo’s Reality
I assume he’s not a proponent of it. But, you know, there he is playing Taurus anyway. It’s like there’s a lot she’s going for here, trying something big. But, I kind of feel like it’s as someone who is in charge of her image. What we see and don’t see. The idea of trying to be emotionally naked or revelatory. I don’t buy it. We know it isn’t. You know? It’s like I was reminded of Whitney Houston saying the Greatest Love of All is to love oneself.
That’s the lesson Jennifer Lopez learns here. If I were a bigger Jennifer Lopez fan, I think I would be down for all of it. But, since I don’t care about her as a musician, I’m not mad at her. I’ve just never been a fan. The movie (This is Me Now) didn’t mean much to me either. I’m not a fan of her music at all, and none of these songs grabbed me. It’s like the choreography.
Beyond Entertainment (This Is Me Now)
It’s the costume design. It’s just the way it moves, the lighting. It’s wondrous to look at all the time. Even that whole thing with the heart, like a steampunk-themed kind of scene. It’s always fascinating to look at. Like, as you say, the layers. But the layers are like different dancers in different places. She’s up on a chain being pulled up to the sky. There’s always something going on where I like wait, now what? And she sunk $20 million of her own money into this. Okay, yeah. I wonder why. I wonder what she hopes to achieve with this beyond just entertaining us, beyond the catharsis that she might experience from it.
I wonder what the point is, especially in a time where, you know, Taylor Swift has her huge concert movie. Beyonce has her huge concert movie. They’re very different from each other. Like, this is Jennifer Lopez’s big musical movie (This is Me Now). I wonder, does she hope to reach people who aren’t already her fans, or is this for the fans to indulge with her? I mean, yeah, probably. I think all of the above. If you’re making an album about these themes, about this progress in your life, evolution, and realizing past mistakes, then the album should express that. And if you could give a couple of interviews where you get to talk about that stuff.
Conclusion
I feel like the movie (This is Me Now) is almost like she wants credit for something. But when you reach that level of stardom, people will say what they’ll say. You don’t care anymore. You just do your own thing and create fulfilling work, which this is. There’s also a Singing in the Rain homage. There are many different ideas here. One of them is a Singing in the Rain homage. What’s your rating? I’ll give it a 6 for effort, despite not connecting with the material. I’ll give it a 7. I appreciate its ambition and visual dazzle. It’s only 65 minutes long, but the making of is 85 minutes long. That seems very indulgent.