En la cama con Madonna

This is a wonderful documentary. It shows the ups and downs of being a rock star. Essential to fans.

I don't know sh*t about Madonna. I know that the media has a fixation on her aging (how dare she have a wrinkle at 57-years-old?), that she almost died at this year's Brit Awards while performing "Living for Love", that she sliced censors in half during her controversial 1994 interview with David Letterman, that Robert Christgau thinks she's a pop genius, that the gays love her, that she's, all right, clinging to her youth. But still, I hardly know anything about Madonna. Maybe I could barely sing the chorus to "Holiday", but that's all. I'd recognize her if she were to walk down my street. I saw her in "Dick Tracy" once. She was pretty good in that.

I suppose I was expecting "Truth or Dare" to have a sort of "Vogue" tinged romanticism, painting Madonna as a pop figure still untouchable, like how "Ready to Wear" made the fashion world funny, nowhere near realistic, but was all the better for it. For all the cultural bullshit that misunderstands her, "Truth or Dare" dares you to hate and love the pop superstar at the same time, wanting you to scoff at her need to be the STAR of every moment, wanting you to appreciate her relentless work ethic, her need to be an entertainer at the top of their game. And like all good documentaries (and why this one is so damn good), the film is riveting for everyone, outsiders and insiders alike. I wasn't a Madonna fan before the documentary nor will I be afterward, but as a rock documentary, "Truth or Dare" stands as one of the finest.

Recording the entirety of her 1990 Blond Ambition tour, the film is essentially an inside-look into what a day, a night, a week, a month, a year, looks like for Madonna. (Or maybe it just seems that way: a master of camera manipulation, she may just as well be putting on a show.) Photographed in grainy black-and-white, save for the colored (and obligatory) stage performances, "Truth or Dare" is more warty than glamorized, emphasizing her vulnerabilities, need to be the center of attention, and her wicked sense of humor (she seems to laugh more when people are having a hard time than when everyone is having a ball).

I couldn't care less about the complicated choreographic sets that circle around renditions of "Like a Virgin", "Express Yourself", "Holiday", among others; what makes "Truth or Dare" engaging is its frank candidness. Behind the scenes, Madonna notices that the majority of her young dancers are insecure and need mothering; strange, she remarks, how she likes to be a matriarch, to give her stage family someone to confide in. We catch glimpses of her short relationship with "Dick Tracy" co-star Warren Beatty, who scoffs at the fact that real-life doesn't seem to matter to her unless it is captured on camera. Cameos abound, featuring pop-ups from Pedro Almodóvar, Kevin Costner, Antonio Banderas, and Al Pacino. But there are three truly great scenes in the film, where Madonna doesn't seem to be putting on a show, where she doesn't seem to be trying to make herself look a certain way for the cameras.

Best is her reaction to Kevin Costner, who comes backstage for one show and describes the production as neat; disgusted, she gags, remarking "Anybody who says my show is 'neat' has to go." Later, an old friend (pre-fame old) meets Madonna in the hallway of her hotel, asking her to be the godmother to her soon-to-be born child. Though it is clear that the women were close back in the day, Madonna blows her off; she doesn't want to be a mother any time soon, and she doesn't have time to waste time with non-celebrities from the past. And in one of the closing scenes, she infamously models what a blow job from Madonna would look like on a glass bottle. Minutes later, she describes her true love as Sean Penn, heartbroken, regretful.

Fakery of course comes around — the scene where she visits her mother's grave doesn't feel all too sincere, rather the documentarian's hope to make appear feel bare- bones hopeless — but "Truth or Dare", ultimately, is a winning documentary that makes the once chart-dominating pop-star more fascinating, and timeless, than ever.

As a simple concert video, this one is above average. But the title is very misleading. First let's deal with the 'truth' aspect. Madonna's friends pop in on her - Warren Beatty, Sandra Bernhart - but you get little in the way of glimpses into her relationships with others. You see Madonna playing Mother Hen to her backup performers, but you get the sense that she isn't very close to any of them. Thus, even though this is supposed to be an expose of Madonna's true private life, there is so little of this on screen that the audience is denied a genuine insider's view. And when Madonna deals with the business aspects of her tour, the boardroom door closes on the camera and the audience. This aspect of the life of a performer so well known for her product-image management might potentially be the most fascinating part of the tour, but the audience is kept outside. And compared to some of what Madonna has done on the screen, this is so far below her usual standards of shock as to hardly qualify as 'daring'. It is worth a watch, but beware of a stretching of the 'truth' when it comes to packaging.

Nothing surprising is revealed in this documentary. Perhaps ten years ago, when the film came out, it stunned many fans and non-fans. But Madonna has remained in the spotlight ever since, and thanks to magazines, interviews, MTV, VH-1, not to mention her music, video, book and film work since 1991, we've seen most of the stuff in this documentary already. Plus, Madonna shows us only what she wants us to see. There are a few moments when the camera suddenly shuts off, like when she confesses that Sean Penn was the love of her life. She also talks about her huge crush on Antonio Banderas, and when he snubs her, she jokingly admits that she will never work with him (obviously she was kidding because she worked with him in Evita). When she's playful and in good spirits, she's fun to watch. But in the end, this is really a vanity project, instead of the completely "naked" documentary it was supposed to be. That probably suits her diehard fans just fine, but regular viewers are hoping to see more than her "attitude" backstage, long footage of her explicit onstage material, constant vulgarity, and high-maintenance daily rituals.

ok, so by now you know im not a fan, as im not gushing about her in the Summary line. so i think that grants me a little more credibility...

this was not really a documentary as i envision one, mostly because she was the subject *and* executive producer -- meaning she called the shots on this film. it is therefor impossible not to paint a completely biased and self-interested picture. frankly, it's modanna propaganda (propadonna?). she knew she was making a movie about herself while she was making it... from the voice-over narrations to the staff testimonies of how "sensitive she really is", it all seemed contrived. in fact, the only real part about it were the music videos, and warren beatty (he was hilarious because he seemed so bored or disgusted of the whole thing. sardonically he humors her: "Why would you say something if it's off-camera? What..what point is there existing?"). a that being said....madonna is a terrific performer. her costumes, routines, songs, sets, and raw sexual energy just blow me away.

she's one of the privileged-few in society, but i can see why she got there.