Lopez performs “The Artist” in a series of interlocking music videos, packaging the melodrama from the paparazzi into an ambitious mini-movie promoting her latest album.
Jennifer Lopez has spent much of her career bouncing between two sides of her public persona: the Bronx-born girl next door, “Jenny from the Block,” and the Hollywood power player, “J. Lo.” Much of the tension between the two has been amplified by media coverage spanning calculated marketing campaigns and inevitable paparazzi surveillance, but Lopez is determined to surrender to whichever is best for him at the time. It often appears that they are.
“This is Me…Now: A Love Story” is ostensibly the visual element of her self-financed ninth studio album, and when you look at its reported $20 million price tag, it’s more than anything. It would be easy to see this as an advertisement. But more than just the subject, as the star, co-writer, and executive producer of a series of music videos, Lopez has, above all, shown how difficult it is to express oneself in public for more than 30 years. The result is a fair-sounding film for a feature film, with a lot to admire, even if it’s not entirely successful.
Beginning with a retelling of the Puerto Rican myth of Alida and Tarru, in which lovers are transformed into flowers and hummingbirds, López (as the “artist”) reflects on his own love addiction and the risks associated with falling hard and fast. Masu. I do it every time I get a chance. Considering the new album bookends with her previous album 2002’s “This is Me…Then,” it was conceived when she and now-spouse Ben Affleck were first dating. It is surprising that Affleck appears only in silhouette as his lover. She is thrown from that bike while speeding through the magic hour landscape. (That said, his contributions to “Now” are minimal, although he sometimes wears heavy makeup as a newscaster.)
Their conflict immediately propels the artist into “Hearts and Flowers,” which takes place in a factory-like cave where the fire in her heart is in danger of being extinguished. Her third metaphor for love, wrapped up in less than five minutes, is one in which Lopez draws on her own life, and more precisely the record of her life as reported by the media, to explain how it is possible to truly love someone. It sets the stage for delving into the depths of the adage “before you can.” If not, you must learn to love yourself. ”Lopez then dances through a series of trials to rekindle her inner workings, even with the help of co-writers Chris Schaefer and Dave Meyers (the latter also directing). , she proves to be more of a formidable showperson than a truth teller.
Not that Lopez seems dishonest. Far from it. She is an artist of her caliber and very few people are willing to spotlight the ups and downs of her personal life. Compare it to Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s overly superficial supergroup victory lap “Everything Is Love,” for example, and you can feel that she’s more than just that. She attempts to reveal her experiences, but leaves room for myriad reactions and opinions from others to those experiences. But it’s also what leads to the ambitious but slightly unwieldy structure of “This is Me…Now,” which features a chorus of astrological signs (Trevor Noah, Jane Fonda, Post Malone) Paul Lacy, a therapist played by fellow Bronx native and frequent collaborator Fat Joe, watches from on high (played by Keki Palmer, Trevor Noah, Jennifer Lewis, Neil), deGrasse Tyson, Sofia Vergara, etc. led by a Love Addicts Anonymous group, a group of enthusiastically supportive friends, and a revolving door of romantic partners played by a host of dancers (Derek Hough) and actors (Trevor Jackson).
There is a sense in which Lopez wants to be completely transparent, oscillating between the layers of an artist’s reality. When she says “This Is Me,” she means it. At the beginning of the film, she says, “My answer to what I wanted to be when I grew up was always…love.” This is further repeated in the music segment of her video. “Rebound” involves escaping the glass house of an abusive relationship. In “Can’t Get Enough,” she goes through three weddings simultaneously while her best friends anxiously try to support her. In “Broken Like Me,” he pours out his feelings as interpreted by a fellow therapy seeker. Her “This is Me…Now” showed her love for her childhood self. But Lopez is also a performer at heart. In fact, not only is she honest, but is she willing to be wrong or even actively unappealing? It’s unclear.
It’s hard not to sympathize with her, but in the end it’s clear to Lopez that being “in love with love” is more or less an unambiguously good thing. Both her astrological sign and her friends wring their hands over her misfortune, but she resolves her own insecurities by answering their questions and criticisms, or by learning commonplace lessons. Towards the end of the film, she performed a new song, “Midnight Trip to Vegas,” inspired by Lopez and Affleck’s real-life impromptu wedding, in which she played “Sex and the City” protagonist Carrie – Experiencing the same marriage ending as Bradshaw. She was too often in love, by her own standards. Either way, Lopez’s latest project proves that while the artist wants to be fearless and open, he also understands the impact a good story can have. story. And those, not empathy or superstardom, are the values Lopez needs to reconcile.
To be fair, it seems like someone who created as much fame, success, and attention as she did would never truly be “known” to the average person. But “This Is Me…Now: A Love Story” is perhaps the closest thing to them, and Lopez’s ability to take pop star wisdom and make it seem like a window into her soul This is the proof.
