The Pop Star Approves This Message

When a tell-all documentary is just another press release.

- Matthew Jacobs

THESE FILMS tend to follow a template: Cameras trail a singer through the recording studio or on tour. The subject speaks in dulcet tones about their life; tension is derived from the quest to exist as a public figure.

There is footage from their childhood, brisk montages, and testimonies about the nature of fame-all aimed at making the artist seem grounded and even more worthy of adoration. (And you can bet that they, or their manager, will be credited as a producer.) 

We're in a boom time for the publicist-approved pop-star documentary. In the past four years alone, we've seen series and features about Jennifer Lopez, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, J Balvin, and many, many more. This year, we've already got Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero and Kings From Queens: The Run DMC Story (with more to come about Nicki Minaj, Brian Eno, Indigo Girls, Devo, and Céline Dion). While filmmakers have been profiling musicians for decades, early-2010s docs like Justin Bieber: Never Say Never and Beyoncé: Life Is But a Dream established the current formula. Containing two or three headline-generating revelations, these projects are mostly a way for artists to control their image from start to finish. How do you know if you're watching one? Just look out for these key elements.

1.The Origin Story

Whether it includes grainy footage of a talent show or memories of the church choir, a story about the dawning of the artist's talent is a must.

Childhood, whether beatific or brutal, is framed as a source of drive and set to a wistful score. We might learn this via camcorder videos of a miniature frolicking future star, as in Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, or present-day footage, as in Machine Gun Kelly's Life in Pink, when the performer returns to the Cleveland block where he spent his teenage years.

2. Woe Is Fame