Glitter (2001)

Just what I expected

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

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 was astonished. There is no movie or whatsoever ! The story I watched is one cheap rip-off from (A Star is Born) mixed with useless forgotten-from-the-start another story about the return of once-drunken mom to her long-lost daughter. It could be, from very very merciful angle, an anti-alcohol public service announcement, yet through the behavior of scriptwriters ! And if it is, as I heard, partly Mariah Carey's biography, then the tagline should be: In music she found her dream, her love, herself. Not cinema ! OK, I said to myself, so what about the songs? However as a fan of Mariah Carey's music and voice (like me), or not, you must hate these songs. The only track that worth hearing, Want You; a duet with (Eric Benét), is butchered in the background of one scene, even (Benét) got no respectable character during it !! Some of the songs were so 80s, and sorrowfully I mean it in the bad sense.The acting was extremely UGLY. (Max Beesley) must work in any other line than acting. (Mariah Carey) earned the Worst Actress award for that year fair and square. Speaking about ugliness, one of the most famous beauties back then, Mariah herself, looked really not beautiful for most of the time. Maybe that's the effect of this movie on her ! I hated it for making nothing to be watched, heard, or bearable. The release of it was postponed for 3 weeks when Mariah was hospitalized as a result of an "emotional and physical breakdown". Till now I believe that that happened due to undeclared reason which is watching this movie before releasing it (and I'm not kidding !).You read that it is listed among the 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book (The Official Razzie® Movie Guide). Now I beg to differ. Bad it is. Enjoyably? It isn't !

Now, I would have absolutely no interest in ever, ever, ever, ever watching this movie. When I saw a photo of Carey teeing off while wearing hot pants and porn-star high heels, I thought, 'This is a girl with not a lepton of virtue or admirability.' Well, okay, she can hit impressively high notes, but that's the only thing. So, when I started a Rifftrax membership and saw that this movie was among those riffed, I thought, 'Well, maybe.' I could only watch the first 20 minutes when I suddenly remembered that the drain in the garage needed mucking and decided that would be more fun and rewarding than watching this piece of schlock.I'm going to jump genres and compare this movie with 'Rock Star', a film similar in its rags-to-riches theme. At least 'Rock Star' had a comedic slant to it and didn't try to pass itself off as high drama. Those involved in making this film took it so seriously that it becomes a mockery in an attempt at gravity. They go to pains to show that Carey had a drunk mom, when to an orphanage but never expanded on those formative events or years. It may have been interesting to have seen the character pass through her formative years and how she became the person she is, how her values and beliefs were established, how the foundation for her adult life was laid. Nah! That's not important in a pseudo-biographical film. Let's jump right to the bootie-shaking. The songs even draw from a well of sophomoric offerings that Carey has penned.This is a long way to a short point. This movie just sucked.

There is an American Football term called "Piling on". It's a penalty where the opposing team stops the runner and after the play is blown dead, opposing players keep jumping on the guy with ball--a definite no-no. Well, to me, this film conjures up this term, as when the film came out, reviewers seemed to come out of the woodwork to say how terrible the film was. In fact, they took great delight in talking about how bad the film was--shortly after release it was already legendary--perhaps made more so by Mariah Carey's nervous breakdown. Many speculated that this film led to this. Well, while I'd never say this is a good film, it certainly wasn't as bad as they said and it seemed that people were just piling on poor Mariah. Now I am NOT a fan of her music--up until this film, I barely ever heard any of it, but I felt bad for her because of all the hubbub.As I said, the film isn't good but it isn't terrible. The biggest problems were with the script--which was essentially A STAR IS BORN. The film had already been made too many times by the time Barbra Streisand did it a few decades ago--now, the story is so old and has been done so many times that it just seemed like a giant cliché. In many ways, also, Mariah's character seemed a bit like a battered woman and it felt frustrating that she kept holding on to a guy who was an obvious jerk--making her character seem a bit pathetic. Additionally, the film suffered, at least for me, with a severe case of "music video-itis". In other words, there were so many musical numbers, at times it seemed more like a bunch of music videos strung together with a bare plot--not a real film. Of course, there have been much worse examples of this type of film--such as Paul McCartney's GIVE MY REGARDS TO BROAD STREET--which had significantly less plot than GLITTER (yes, it is possible).But, on the positive side, Ms. Carey sure can sing and was absolutely beautiful--in fact, stunning. Also, her acting (which took a lot of abuse) wasn't that bad, either. In fact, had this film gone over a bit better, I could have seen her going on to other acting projects and improving her craft. Now, however, I don't think there's a chance in a billion! So, my overall verdict is that this is an okay film at best. However, it did not deserve all the attention the Razzies gave it--it's not really a movie that is enjoyably bad...just a bit dull and very predictable. However, if you adore her music, you could do a lot worse than see this film.Poor Mariah. After this film tanked, all she had was her immense fortune and jet-set life.

Well I watched simply because I am a long time fan of Mariah Carey, who has really presented tons of classic songs for our generation. But this film, ironically and of course, coincidentally marked her epic fail of the album of the same title.The whole film was just like a amusing fakery, where you could see MC's sugar-sweet smiles when she's happy and her unconvincing tears when she's down. And those moments were probably the only ones where acting existed. Apart from those, there's no even acting to talk about. And that's the biggest issue for the film: she sang it through instead of acting it through. Sometimes MC sang a song, and her BF held her from behind with no other reason.As for the story, it's plain boring, while we knew that Mariah had a painful childhood and a Cinderella legend when she was discovered by Sony records. These parts being added would definitely double the decency of this film up. Thus it's confusing why they didn't do it.The only good part was MC's skilled singing perhaps. And despite that, the songs sucked like hell, so it was funny that they "imagined" that those songs built up Billie's legendary career, which was mocking.