Performance Review: Allison P. Davis

Endless Love: J.Lo returns to her rom-com roots. Is she tired of repeating herself?

- By Allison P. Davis

IN 2021, WHEN JENNIFER LOPEZ and Ben Affleck got back together after nearly 20 years, with four divorces between them (three of them hers, one his) and one A-Rod, it felt like a romantic destiny fulfilled, as though something amiss in the universe had been put back together. Much like Jen and Ben, we realized we might not have been ready for their relationship in the early aughts-it was too bright, too prominent, too blingy. We didn't understand that something so high profile and overexposed could be genuine. Two decades later, we've had other (parasocial) relationships with celebrity couples and have learned a thing or two about how the tabloid coverage contributed to their 2004 breakup. (Bennifer 1.0 walked-nay dragged itself through broken glass-so Taylor and Travis could run.)

Now, thanks to time and wisdom, we love their love story! We're even willing to reconsider their 2003 cinematic flop, Gigli, which will soon stream on the Criterion Channel. Call her a savvy businesswoman or a lovable narcissist but J.Lo picked up on what the people wanted: to luxuriate in this moment with them, to get a glimpse of their relationship, to fully nestle into Bennifer 2.0, to know what they talk about in couples therapy. To satisfy our lovesick little minds, she gifted us This Is Me... Now: A Love Story, a movie-musicalautofiction-cum-album promotion that's one part of a self-funded $20 million project (along with a behind-the-scenes documentary and the album) inspired by her two fixations: finding love and reconnecting with Ben Affleck. To tell her epic love story, she borrows from her own rom-com heyday, channeling an aesthetic from 2002, when music videos had interludes, plots, and flip phones. She revisits fedoras and Burberry plaid to dance her way through TIM... N:ALS, a feverish 55-minute highlight reel that (sort of) tells (but mostly hints at) the real story of how she found herself, learned how to love, and found her way back to Ben.