Beyoncé: Life Is But a Dream (2013) Reviews

• Poor Rich Beyonce

  italo5052013-03-09

  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…

• A true inspiration

  atbest-life2013-02-17

  I was very impressed with this documentary and the life lessons she communicated. It was a beautiful documentary and scenes were beautiful as well. If you want to be encouraged and uplifted watch this movie. Here are some high points from the documentary: The visual background scenes. The singing, she is a great singer. Her family gathering. A woman in charge. I really appreciated how she had to take charge and how hard she works. The sadness parts were her talking about losing a child and losing her dad as her manager. The Songs I would recommend to download from iTunes are 1+1, I care, and End of Time. Her daughter Blue Ivy is so adorable and beautiful. You will be blessed by this movie. Enjoy.

• Me Me Me Me Me Me!!!!.......zzzzzzzz

  MrRockatansky2013-02-22

  Beyoncé is the star, executive producer, narrator, co-writer and co-director of this film, which pretty much tells you what the real purpose of this "documentary" is. Only the true "beylievers" could enjoy this, for only Beyoncé's biggest fans could look beyond the amount of superficiality and narcissism in this film. It's essentially just the film equivalent of taking lots of flattering pictures of yourself. Beyonce talks into her laptop camera like a narcissist staring at them self in the mirror with complete delight and fascination while she desperately tries to make herself appear a deep and thoughtful artist, but fails miserably because she's actually just a manufactured pop star. Despite the fact that she dances around in tight clothes and sings subservient songs about men putting "a ring on it", Beyoncé also seems to think she's an authority on feminism, saying: "It's not about equal rights; it's about how we think." Ironically, I am still thinking that one over. There is also one moment where Beyoncé hilariously lacks perspective and complains that this current generation is too obsessed with image and superficiality, when this is a superficial documentary that she made in order to enhance her image. The only thing I learned from this film is how surprisingly unintelligent Beyonce is.

• She gave the fans what we wanted

  dbrown72-539-9682842013-02-21

  Showing true humility, softness, fierceness and beauty. Just enough of her life to not over expose her but enough to create lactation for the 1.8 million fans watching the debut & the millions that will continue to watch it for the first time. It is relatively geared for a woman to watch. All the "we run the world, girls" and ups & downs of pregnancy (that sincerely make a woman want to have a child) I think is suited for a woman to watch. A solid majority of the documentary is filmed with beyonce's computer. It almost inspires me to do some self recording...haha. Keep on being the best in the business, Beyonce & Jay.

• She gave the fans what she wanted!

  ikbenshagadelic2013-04-20

  A jumbled mess of unrelated scenes lacking in narrative and structure. Clips of archive footage are obviously pre-selected by Beyonce herself in a vain attempt to seem down to earth. It backfires due to the complete transparency of the attempted ruse. The footage is set-up to make Beyonce seem deep and spiritual but the obvious script results in a 60 minute non-sensical string of non sequiturs. Nothing more than a vehicle of self praise, self pity and the dishonest rambling of a delusional woman. Contains nothing of note.