The popdoc genre hit a new level of transparency last year with Katy Perry’s Piece Of Me. As the tale of a one-time Christian singer who banged at the door of multi platinum fame until it came thrusting open, it was pretty standard stuff. But when the tabloid strands of her personal life unfurled as the cameras kept on rolling, the documentary took an unexpected turn and proved to be more compelling than anyone could have predicted.
Thursday night sees Beyoncé attempting to pull a similar trick with Life Is But A Dream, but does she pull it off? Well, not quite, the film conceals more than it reveals. Still here are five things we did learn from it…
Watch in semi-horror as our heroes serenade each other with a duet of Coldplay’s biggest hit, Yellow. Is it the couple’s version of this?
Probably. There are a couple of moments in the film where she attempts to prove the veracity of her pregnancy with questionable results. Alongside some black and white silhouetted scenes of her showing off La Bump, there is a shot of her pregnant stomach that looks…like a well-fed stomach. We’re going to put our prenatal doctor qualifications to one side and ask: “Blue Ivy or just extra large burrito”?
Seriously…
Written after suffering a miscarriage and described as “the saddest song I’ve ever written in my life”, Beyoncé plays an acapella sample of her track Heartbeat (featuring the lyrics: “You took the life right out of me,”). But will the song, which was written for 4, ever be released? Watch this space.
One of the pivotal Beyoncé pieces of the film is her split from her Dadager, Matthew Knowles. She talks direct to camera about gaining independence from her father but we never find out the specifics of what actually went down between the two. Did he refuse to wear a House Of Dereon blazer to his business meetings? Drink Coke instead of Pepsi? We’ll never know. Instead, Beyoncé sings Listen from Dreamgirls by way of an explanation.