This month, Jennifer Lopez also launched two feature films that are not video clips. They are a 20 million dollar “love letter to herself” The Greatest Love Story Never Told and This is Me Now a Love Story which accompany her ninth studio album. The fact that there are two films confused me. I wanted to view the film telling the story of this film but I am unable to see it and differentiate it from the film this film is based on. I finally grasped the concept of watching a documentary rather than a film – that it was possible to avoid J Lo making a narrative feel like a lousy feature film, which many creative types nowadays pretend is not the case with their own work.
In The Greatest Love Story Never Told J Lo has been kind enough to take us along with her as she makes a film about her romantic life. After being married four times, Lopez has to provide an account of what has really unfolded in her intimate space. “You really don’t have to” her fourth husband Ben Affleck adds.
It goes without saying that he wouldn’t want to see an entire film cast around an entirely different perspective about Jennifer as it also concerns his private life as well. And it is a complicated situation. Also as Ben explains since it is being told, it is not the best story ever told. His dry wit in the documentary does yoking to prove in any way that it is now the time when J Lo has a man who treats her right. If you ever watched Ben Affleck’s Batman cast interviews, let’s just say you are not going to be a fan of the person. Nobody, not even her manager whom one would think would benefit from this project, wants J Lo to do it. They dropped out even when a studio signed on to finance it. All the celebrities whose numbers she collected for making the calls to them in order to ask if they would like to join her in the film simply said no. It would typically imply the rubbish bin for a project but instead of J Lo managed to simply complete it on her own.
Self-financed movies are the death of them in Hollywood, and so are all long music videos. For that very reason, her manager emphasizes that this work is not a clip like the one that can be pulled upon the length of a commercial song. They do not move. Rihanna tried, Beyonce tried. But J Lo does not care. It is not aimed at making a profit.
It’s art, as honest as it gets: the need to make something visible that lies within. And no, I am not making a joke. The only commendable aspect about this pair of films is the fact that these were made because there was an urge to create beautiful things. These are not good films but she has been able to make us believe that they do not intend to make profits. These are as sincere as one can get in Hollywood. There is always the over-dramatic moment behind the camera when Lopez, looking defeated and having doubts about the idea she has devoted herself to, is depicted, only to watch her enthusiasm and vigor moments later with the background music. But it’s all her.
On one of her creative meetings, J Lo decided to share something extra special with a few of her aides — a scrapbook with years’ worth of love letters between her and Affleck. It is pretty awkward to see Affleck sit there talking about it. He does not agree with it, but wishes to help his wife in whatever way he can. So far some while these exchanges are positive ways of showing their connection, for now this is not the case with J Lo. However, it is clear that the struggle within the woman is rather concerning. The only thing that J Lo is looking for is self love which is the focus of her narrative.
Indeed, there’s a core theme in the most romantic story that someone can tell that is about loving oneself. In This is Me… Now, there is a quite funny scene where Jennifer Lopez plays with a girl who acts her younger version. Both girls cry when an older version of JLo hugs the younger one and she eventually turns into rose petals and is blown away by the wind. It is cringeworthy, but at the same time, it seems like a representation of how letting go of the past can be ever so satisfying, how a ‘little girl’ in all mature ladies who always acted without speaking — in essence, how she can feel liberated.
Not very aptly realized, a similar alternative can be seen in the connections with the movie’s lame heart factory sequences. In these funny clips, J Lo plays the role of a sexy factory, hard-working brunette with big sweat drops, placed in a room full of hot and humid females depending on their feminine plants in rows. Silly these women include sex-Kapan. Ashton is the heart, those banging other hot ladies. But it’s all terrible – shattered bodies flay off, wires snap and the heart sinks and ignites a furious flash. Consider mud from nightmares, storm of horrible filthy water gushing out from giant pipes.
In an interesting turn of events that depicts her action hero persona, J Lo first pulls one woman close after she slips on the mud, and then proceeds to swing on a wrecking ball and sing: ‘It ain’t hearts and flowers, / It ain’t all hearts and flowers, Before you see my life and say I live the dream, Remember everything ain’t always what it seems. So what she seems to be saying is that her life does not exactly borderon glamorous even though she has $20 million that she can fritter away on vanity. And quite understandably so, that’s the message any Hollywood autobiography would want to convey.
Living the life of a star seems glamorous but deep down, these stars are human with real problems too. The paradox many see is how this life looks so overwhelmingly beautiful, full of beauty and heart and flowers, which is pretty much the entirety of her life.
Any reason to not cheer the woman who struts around all these lofts with an unrestrained and lingering bottle of champagne in her hand. Whenever she decides to let loose on the dance the floor: it’s over. With absolutely no exceptions, the metaphor consists of this elastic band. One pleads herself to let go of her dependency on some abusive partner and the abusive partner is always her–well, most of the time it is. This, I believe, matters. Diving and plowing into the crown with one voice is becoming easier and easier. After all, she is fifty-four.
J Lo is informed at the close of the documentary that she has secured distribution for her films with a large studio. Nice. Now the question is, will she be able to watch Netflix like an average fifty-four-year-old woman?
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