Beyoncé: Lemonade

A truly masterpiece and this is the truly of art. Beyoncé challenges her everything to speak the truth.

After her raunchy and overtly explicit self-titled visual album released in 2013, Beyonce returns with a more toned down, yet her most empowering work of art to date. The Lemonade visual features complex themes of infidelity that is prevalent throughout the film as viewers are taken through a scorn woman's journey from Intuition to Anger all of which are different stages of emotion a woman goes through when they are cheated on.

The cinematography varies throughout the film but remains to be consistent to the overall experience of the film. Asides from the film, Beyonce's music is both personal and raw as she experiments with different genres of music such as R&B, rock, reggae and even country. Despite the wildly different genres of music Beyonce plays with, much like the cinematography, it all mends together well to produce the over arching story that she intends the viewers to experience.

Beyonce's Lemonade is her best work to date.

A musical and cinematic masterpiece that has stood the test of time, and should be required viewing - not just for those who claim to be music fans, but for all who have experienced betrayal, yearning, heartbreak, anger, denial, apathy, reconciliation, and joy.

In LEMONADE, beyoncé seamlessly weaves together the stages of grief via a cohesive sequence of poems, songs, and cinematic acts. Each song flows into the other as she deals with each stage of grief.

The heart wrenching poems and innovate music are showcased alongside incredibly moving films that feature everything from a suicide attempt, to african rituals, to drowning, to a giant monster truck rampage, to a fire, to a bus/house party.

The film highlights the intersection of generational trauma, anti-blackness, misogyny and heartbreak in a masterful way that was never before seen, and has yet to be exceeded.

I was expecting a series of loosely tied together music videos, but the connection, and the narrative, was much stronger than expected. This is obviously based on Beyoncé's own life, the troubles she has had in her own family, and the importance of family to her (in both a literal and figurative sense). It's shown using a combination of private footage and more music video-like sequences, and it ends up working really well.

What's most impressive, is how Beyoncé and the movie makers managed to make her very personal story feel relatable for people in completely different situations. This is done both by showing all sorts of lives throughout the film, but also by making Beyoncé herself feel more human and relatable.

The process and personal journey described, going from feeling hurt, to angry, indifferent, etc., and then forgiveness and redemption, kind of makes the other players in her personal journey seem like passive players, and so the conveying of "forgivenes" was a bit harder to swallow. But then again, this is only meant to reflect her side of all of this, and you are just going to trust her judgment.

I didn't use to listen to Beyoncé very often until I heard about this masterpiece and decided to give it a listen. And I was THRILLED! Not only the album but its visuals also succeeded at entertaining me. Unlike her last album which had individual visuals for each track, Lemonade's visuals are connected with mysterious and meaningful poetry that has given me chills. This lengthy but entertaining music video/visual album shows us Beyoncé's doubts about Jay-Z. It opens with "Intuition" where Beyoncé starts to question their relationship and followed by "Denial" where Beyoncé tries to be "less awake". In "Anger", Beyoncé tells Jay-Z "if he tries this s*** again, he go lose his wife" while in "Reformation", Beyoncé tries to repair their relationship. Eventually, it finishes with "Redemption" where Beyoncé understands that Jay is her true love and she cannot leave him. Its trailer makes it look dark and creepy, but trust me, IT IS NOT. And you are hearing this from a person who isn't a Beyoncé fan(Well, not anymore :)) And now, Lemonade is one of my favourite albums, while Beyoncé is one of my favourite artists.