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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWe have a review! THE MELANIA TRUMP DOCUMENTARY IS A DISGRACE (The Atlantic)
Ill offer a link thats supposed to be a gift link.
The exorbitant film captures the rotten state of the entertainment industry.
But very few people have seen Ask E. Jean or even heard of it. Streaming platforms and distributors have steered absolutely clear of a movie that so plainly impugns the president, regardless of its obvious relevance and engaging portrait of Carroll, whose decision to come forward was resolutely in spite of everything she knew shed face as a result. We all have a lot at stake here. This lawsuit is not just for me; it almost has nothing to do with me, she explains in one scene to the director, Ivy Meeropol. Its for, really, women across the country. In court, Carroll faced lawyers for a former (now reelected) president, making the case, as she puts it, that Trump was protected by his scope of employment as president when he called me too hideous to rape.
At the Melania screening I attended today, what was most surprising about the movie was how little is actually in it, despite a running time just shy of two hours. Mostly, Ratner captures his subject walking from liminal place to liminal place in five-inch heels, the camera trailing her like a lap dog. She looks immediately uncomfortable being filmed, an effect that never quite goes away. In voiceover, she opines vaguely about wanting the film to capture her motivations as first lady. Every day I live with purpose and devotion, she explains, while we see her being fitted for her inauguration outfit, working with designers to manage the aesthetic of the presidential balls, and interviewing various white women with barrel curls to join her staff. She talks proudly about having, during Trumps first term, restored the White House Rose Garden (unfortunately since converted by her husband into a paved patio area).
Ratner seems desperate to find action, but there is none. The pace is stultifying. The camera lingers on a designers aide who trembles at the task of trimming Melanias inaugural blouse with scissors. We see the first lady videoconference with Brigitte Macron, her French counterpart, about her Be Best initiative. Halfway through, Ratner picks up what seems to be Melanias fathers Super 8 camera and never puts it down, so the latter part of the film is studded with grainy handheld scenes of helicopters and Arlington National Cemetery. Trump is inauguratedRatner uncharitably includes scenes of a backstage Kamala Harris looking pissed offand we follow the president and his wife to three balls. Melania shows off her custom-made inauguration gown, stark white with black ribbons overlaying it, a dress that now looks unavoidably like the redacted Epstein files.
Whats in the filmlots of shots of tech bosses paying homage to Trump, Ratner trying to get Melania to sing along to Billie Jean, Melanias insistence on the sacred values of the Constitution and its protection of individual rightsis almost less compelling than whats not. (Any glimpse of Stephen Miller.) But Melanias heavy focus on its subject, despite her husband being one of the most attention-sucking people on the planet, does raise one interesting question: Is his wife the only person Trump can stand being upstaged by? Throughout, the president seems truly proud and enamored of Melania. You look beautiful, beautiful, he tells her in one scene. Like a movie star. (I laughed out loud at one phone call, during which Melania, in New York, seems exasperated when her husband wont shut up about how big his election victory was.)
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026/01/melania-trump-documentary-review/685829/?gift=j8JiJIlliWfcdD_mDVMd99APTCTTKiMQCbQWoCmy9a0
Cirsium
(3,533 posts)Even the review is boring.
Cirsium
(3,533 posts)It is a really bad film when even the scathing reviews are ho hum - "tell me something I didn't know already."
The film is so bad that people are walking out on in-flight screenings of it.
SheltieLover
(77,941 posts)I reiterate:
PJMcK
(24,861 posts)"The film is so bad that if it were shown on an airplane, passengers would walk out."
jmbar2
(7,761 posts)Melon
(1,144 posts)LudwigPastorius
(14,339 posts)People who live every day with purpose and devotion don't have to tell you that.
SergeStorms
(20,154 posts)displaying their supposed piety in extremely ostentatious ways. Yeah, it's all phony as Trump's "hair." 🫢
underpants
(195,433 posts)Cha
(317,521 posts)Nazis and Fascism for America and getting Americans Murdered in the Streets.
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GD Fucking Bezos & PEDO Pushing this on the World.
progressoid
(52,733 posts)Dave Bowman
(6,849 posts)Aussie105
(7,705 posts)
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Imelda Marcos' shoe room.
I am somehow reminded of a first lady of another arrogant, corrupt regime.
"The Marcos regime in the Philippines, led by Ferdinand Marcos from 1965 to 1986, is characterized by authoritarian rule and significant political repression."
"Martial Law . . .
Widespread human rights abuses . . ."
Sound famiiar?
"The regime faced criticism for corruption and the suppression of democratic processes, leading to its eventual ouster in 1986 during the People Power Revolution."
But Imelda had her shoes, so everything was fine in her world.
FakeNoose
(40,533 posts)I'm sure it will show up sooner or later. There's not much chance it will ever be shown on high-traffic streaming channels like Hulu or HBO.
I don't know much about Brett Ratner, but he sounds creepy doesn't he? Is he such a bad director that he can't get any other work? Or maybe he's just currying favor with Chump so he can go in and ask for a pardon in a couple of years, I don't know.
This movie obviously a vanity project for Melania. Most First Ladies have written books, some have had TV interviews and bio-pics made about them. This is hers. Ho-hum.