This Is Me... Now

Scrolling through Prime for something to watch and came across "This Is Me... Now: A Love Story by J-Lo. I went in with an open mind; not having read any reviews, so had no preconceptions.

It started off OK, pretty visuals, but I quickly realised (within the first 10 minutes or so) that this was some cringe-worthy, self-indulgent, vanity project (thank goodness for the fast forward button!!!)

I did press 'play' at regular intervals to see if (by some miracle) things had improved, but no... my time & intellect was wasting away with each passing minute!!!! ...Dramatic? Nope; it really was THAT bad!!! In addition, I felt nothing but second-hand embarrassment for her as she danced her way through each mind-numbing scene (not to mention the God-awful soundtrack!)

I mean,who actually advised her that this project was a good thing to do? ...must have been the same people who advised Beyonce that her "Black Is King" garbage was a good idea 🙄

If I had to describe this 'film' in 3 words, it would be: Egotistical. Tedious. Cringe-worthy.

What was she thinking? The creative direction is scattered and everything about this is contrived and over the top for no reason. There's nothing wrong (imo) with entertainers making artistic works like this one but it falls flat in this case. The visuals are stunning so that's a plus but it's not enough to make this widely likeable or a huge success. To the films credit, it could have gotten much, much better towards the middle/end but I had to tap out after about 25 minutes. It's one note/boring even with all of the glitz and glam. I will give her kudos for going for it and trying something new. But even all the cameos couldn't lift this heavy rock.

One last thing - WE KNOW THAT IT'S NOT A MOVIE. Stop thinking that those of us that don't care for it are mad because we thought it was a typical movie. We know that it isn't and we can still not like this project. As deep as she wanted this to be, it's not.

Lastly (I promise): Jennifer. Sweetie. You are not in your 20's or 30's anymore as much as you would like to be. Age with grace, please. It is laughable that you continue to push this narrative that you are young. You aren't and that is perfectly ok. You can be in your 50's, 60's and 70's and be sexy, fun, and REAL. Step into that and stop playing yourself.

It's clear to me that tremendous effort went into this project. It has some nice visuals, a veritable fashion show of costume changes, plently of choreography, a slew of high-profile cameos, etc. I just wish all that effort had been put toward a more worthy project. This is a Vanity project through and through, all created to help Jennifer Lopez justify being married four times and to prove to the world why this fourth marriage will last (it won't). The accompanying behind-the-scenes doc is even worse, with her contrived efforts to act like a genuine person falling embarrassingly flat and Ben Affleck's very "I so don't want to be here." demeanor, which has lead to a steady barrage of divorce rumors.

There's no denying the magnetic energy of JLo's music or her mega babe status. But as to what fresh madness this film is, I have no bloody clue. Best guess is that it's a string of music videos linked together by random celebrity cameos and cringey dialogue. I'm sure audiences will vibe the glitz, glamour and hypnotic dancing, which is ridiculously extravagant. I don't believe this film requires much of your attention, I used it as background music while I cleaned the dining room. Thankfully it's only an hour long, so if you vibe JLo and her music then watching it won't be a waste of your time.

This is suppose to be a "movie"? Really?

The bad: let's get things straight. This is nothing more but a one hour compilation of video clips glued to together by some incomprehensible storyline which I wont even attempt to make sense of.

Dont get me wrong, if you are an avid J-lo fan, go right ahead and enjoy the several songs and you probably wont mind the chitchat scenes in between the videos that supposedly elevates this product to a "movie".

But if you are not a diehard J-lo fan, better stay far away from this videoclip compilatioin, because that is what it truly is. Nothing more, nothing less than a bunch of fancy looking music video clips.

At an endnote: I truly do appreciate Jennifer Lopez as an actress. She has proven herself to be a really solid actress. But this is not a movie. This is not even a music documentary. This is a music video compilation dresssed up as ....????