This Is Me... Now: Jennifer Lopez's 'fun mess'
A 'bonkers' companion to the star's ninth studio album
"'You may think you know my story,' Jennifer Lopez intones in the prologue to her new film, 'but you've never heard it from me before.'" "This Is Me… Now" is presumably her attempt to rectify that, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph. Billed as a "narrative-driven cinematic odyssey", and released to coincide with Lopez's ninth studio album, it's a film-cum-music-video that presents the singer doing a succession of "bonkers" things: surviving a high-speed motorcycle crash, single-handedly preventing "a futuristic factory from exploding", getting chased through the Bronx by ghosts, stalking around "a luxurious Los Angeles mansion the size of a B&Q".
By the end, "I can't say I felt any more clued up" on her life than I had been beforehand, but I was "vibrating to the tips of my fingers". Whatever "This Is Me… Now" actually is – "movie, music video, open-door therapy session, entirely insane CG-drenched R&B cheese dream – it is a modern-day pop-art tour de force".
From where I was sitting, it seemed "as shamelessly narcissistic a film" as you could ever "lay eyes upon", said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail. "Unless you're a superfan", this string of "weird dramatised vignettes" are pretty much "unwatchable". Lopez "shelled out $20m from her own wallet" to make "This Is Me… Now", said Nadira Goffe on Slate. And though it is "something of a mess", it's a "fun mess". Frankly, I'd far rather have a star who, in the later stages of her career, opts to pour her millions into a senseless passion project than one who "tortures us all with a three-hour prestige period film for which she went 'method' in the hopes of finally attaining that Oscar".
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
‘The nonviolence resulted from the organizers’ message’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
NY attorney general asks public for ICE raid footageSpeed Read Rep. Dan Goldman claims ICE wrongly detained four US citizens in the Canal Street raid and held them for a whole day without charges
-
Trump’s huge ballroom to replace razed East WingSpeed Read The White House’s east wing is being torn down amid ballroom construction
-
Dry skin, begone! 8 products to keep your skin supple while travelingThe Week Recommends Say goodbye to dry and hello to hydration
-
Film reviews: A House of Dynamite, After the Hunt, and It Was Just an AccidentFeature A nuclear missile bears down on a U.S. city, a sexual misconduct allegation rocks an elite university campus, and a victim of government terror pursues vengeance
-
Book reviews: ‘Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife’ and ‘Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How to Fix It’Feature Gertrude Stein’s untold story and Jane Leavy’s playbook on how to save baseball
-
Rachel Ruysch: Nature Into ArtFeature Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through Dec. 7
-
Music reviews: Olivia Dean, Madi Diaz, and Hannah FrancesFeature “The Art of Loving,” “Fatal Optimist,” and “Nested in Tangles”
-
Gilbert King’s 6 favorite books about the search for justiceFeature The journalist recommends works by Bryan Stevenson, David Grann, and more
-
5 of the best kid-friendly scary moviesThe Week Recommends Hardcore horror is for grown-ups only, but light scares can be startling fun for the whole family
-
Ready for the apocalypseFeature As anxiety rises about the state of the world, the ranks of preppers are growing—and changing.