Life Is But a Dream (2013)

hyped garbage

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

I saw the DVD of this documentary advertised on television quite some time ago and was interested in seeing it as a Beyoncé fan. She is beautiful, talented and has an incredible singing voice. Whilst renting it out, I found it intriguing with a great mix of cinematography albeit the pace being somewhat slow and a couple of lesser known, forgettable songs.While the cinematography looks crisp and professional with interesting camera movements for the most part, it was a tad amateurish in places with shaky camera-work and grainy pictures. Despite this, I liked the archive footage of Beyoncé as a child and a teenager as well as the camera panning above an illuminated city at night while rumours of Beyoncé hiring a surrogate mother are heard. The editing had some good variety to it by breaking up Beyoncé's narration with the archive footage, live performances and backstage footage. I liked the narration, the majority of it coming from 'Bouncy' (what my mum and maybe several other people call her) herself and I could relate to it in a way when she mentioned the difficult relationship with her father but in a professional sense. When I was 18, I had a difficult relationship with my parents, which is why I could relate to Beyoncé. The part that made me laugh the most was Beyoncé and possibly two other former Destiny's Child members singing along to 'Lovefool' by the Cardigans. The part that made me cry the most was towards the end when Beyoncé says her grandmother prayed for her mother, her mother prayed for Beyoncé and Beyoncé would pray for Blue Ivy, who was a cute baby and shown briefly. I also found the revelation of Beyoncé's miscarriage, which I was unaware of until shortly before I saw this documentary, moving as well as the lyrics of the song she wrote after that tragic event. Another part I found rather amusing yet clever was Beyoncé saying, "Life is But a Dream," before jumping off the boat and into the water since part of its title is 'Life Is But A Dream.' This also made me think of a line in the well-known nursery rhyme 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat.'With regard to the music, an essential asset to this documentary, there were some well- known songs such as 'Crazy In Love (despite finding the prior sound of buzzing bees scary);' 'Run The World (Girls),' which was performed in front of an impressive piece of projection mapping at the 2011 Billboard Awards; and the underrated 'Love On Top,' where Beyoncé announced her pregnancy with Blue Ivy at the end of it. While the incidental music was sparse but I could see why, it was beautiful, heartbreaking and funky in different places.Overall this is an engaging musical documentary despite the slow pace and two of the live songs I hadn't heard before. 8/10.

I did not know what to expect when I watched this.I did think that musicians lives were easy (ish), I suppose, but she shows it is hard to be current and modern, and the amount of pressure she is under.I don't understand the other reviews when they say she did not reveal anything about herself, I felt she revealed as much as was appropriate to her. I hate celebrities that tell us everything about their lives.I like that Beyoncé is private, and I am much more interested in her work life and work ethic, which I feel is inspiring to watch.I enjoyed it.

The movie begins with a monologue about childhood, narrated by Beyonce. Then we're at a concert, she drops the B word for some reason (She's bad like that), and we're done with that.Then the "documentary" goes on to the event concerning her father, and their breakup as co workers, Beyonce talks, in, this, slow, and, odd way, as, if, everything, she, says, has, a, deep, impact, and, are meaningfull, but really, it's just comes off as if she is not accustomed to use those big words ...Then we see her being interviewed, Beyonce is talking about the cross-road she faced after she fired here father, and throws all this questions at the viewers regarding her priorities, and guess what, next sentence is about something completely different.Next we have her talking about how we all are brained-washed by the media, well, this is something we can argue, but, why, does, she, still, talk, like, this?Next we see her before her album release, in the office, listing to one of the songs, while mostly white men in their mid 40 is bumping their head (not exactly to the beat, but just randomly), and she paused the song and says "sorry (something something)" and the room breaks out in laughter, and stands up clapping. After thet is done with, one of the men (the one sitting closest to B) says that this album raises the bar. That is funny Because as B is leaving the building we see a poster of Adel's "21", a album that did raise the bar.Anyway, anyway, that is how far I came, the movie is co-directed by B, and that just means that it is going to be shallow, after all, a self-portrait that you publish will not be anything more than that. B tires hard to be deep, but the movie is shot in this artsy way witch makes it come off as superficial. If my review came off disjointed, it's because the movie is like that, now try watching an hour of that. :)

I caught Beyoncé: Life Is But a Dream last weekend on HBO Zone where they showed encore after encore after encore of this documentary so there was no way I could miss it, followed by an interview with Oprah over at OWN on the same night of the cable premiere.The documentary was produced, directed, promoted, starred and edited by Beyoncé herself so there are many details that she's left out so we get to see probably a small percentage of the "real" Beyoncé that we've expected to see. It's one thing to allow cameras to come into your home, film endless hours of every single thing you do and have an unbiased director edit the movie to show this or that aspect of her story. Don't get me wrong, I like Beyoncé. I believe that she's a perfectionist when it comes down to her live performances and appearances. Her father, also acting as her former manager, has taught her well and has made her be the superstar that she is today. Ever since she was a teenager and formed her all girl band, followed by Destiny's Child, then her solo career Beyoncé has played all her cards very well and has landed her on the top of the music world. There is no denying her talent and showmanship.When it comes to revealing all in front of her laptop camera, which she carries everywhere she goes, is a different story. There's nothing engaging or much revealing to see in Life, it's more of an outlet for Beyoncé to talk about her frustration, creative stumps that come along the way, her father whom she had to "fire" as her manager since there was no differentiation between work and family. All I have to say is Beyoncé suffers from a "poor rich girl" syndrome. Are we supposed to feel sorry for her?Among many other scenes, Beyoncé is lying in bed, baring no make-up, and says in a grave, deep voice "there's so much going on" before turning her lamp light off, leaving us wondering "what is going on?". Later, in her interview with Oprah, she says how it was so difficult to choose what to reveal and what not to reveal in the documentary yet she doesn't reveal much. Kind of contradictory, don't you think?One thing that she makes absolutely clear is that she carried her daughter's pregnancy instead of using a surrogate mother. I always believed that to be true and I did sense that she was hurt when she realized how a "harmless" gossip gets started and messes with an artist's head, much like Michael Jackson. She also reveals how she lost her first baby two years prior and her latest album carries a song where she pours her feelings about her loss, which I thought was real and heart breaking. In general, I thought Beyoncé: Life Is But a Dream borrows from many other documentaries like Madonna: Truth Or Dare, or U2's Rattle and Hum, Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter or everything we've seen on MTV over the years. Nothing new, something we've come to expect already. I feel Beyoncé was really careful with how much she revealed but in the process left many questions unanswered. I guess that's what happens when you're the director of your own documentary? What should be the title to my documentary? The Many Faces of Italo? Hmmmm… Let me start working on that