Gaga: Five Foot Two

So here's the deal. I haven't ever really been a huge Lady Gaga fan. I grew up listening to her music but I never really felt like she was ever in it for anything but shock value. I just never really understood the appeal .... until I watched a star is born. That movie was one of, if not my favorite movies of the year and I very much enjoyed Gaga's role in it and her acting abilities. The only problem was : now I wanted to like lady Gaga but I felt like she was exactly who her character ended up being in the end of a star is born and I wanted the down to earth woman from the beginning.

I watched Gaga: five foot two after the shallow Oscar performance because I wanted to see who Gaga really is and I feel like this movie really does that. It was very cool to see her at that point in her life emotionally and physically dealing with a lot. It takes place when she performed at the super bowl halftime show and shows her signing off to star in a star is born. She struggles with so much in this movie but she also has some break throughs, amazing performances, and people who pick her up when she's down.

Overall I felt like she gave a raw and real look into her life and I finally feel like I'm beginning to like Lady Gaga. Not for the pop star version of what she's expected to be like but for the actual person she is.

One thing I really liked about this documentary is how it so often uses a musical and visual way to document her life, as opposed to a verbal narrative. It uses seamless camera and editing tactics to portray the events and her possible emotional states in a way that can't be accurately described with words, which essentially served the purpose of this documentary. We get a glimpse into the life of Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, which is a stark contrast to her artistic persona as Ladygaga, a couple of scenes in this documentary depicts that. Joanne is such a sweet soul, and from this documentary we learn that every human being has struggles, even for a successful big star like Ladygaga, and that there are so many layers within one human being, her artistic stage persona does not fully represent her as a human being.

I knew unbelievably little about Lady Gaga before seeing this documentary.

I knew that she wears elaborate costumes that sometimes make her look equal parts regal and ridiculous and that she has a gorgeous singing voice. I did not even know that she is an American (from New York City) and an earthy person in her private life. The first scene in this movie shows her as she looks when she gets out of bed and feeds her dogs. She is more how I would have imagined that her personal assistant might look.

Basically, a camera crew follows her around for possibly longer than we know. It is a good thing not to feel as if we are with her in real time because this doc may have followed her for many months.

The word exhibitionist might be a bit strong, but little of Gaga's anatomy is left to the viewer's imagination. We also meet the inner Lady Gaga (nee Stefani Germanotta) learning that she is affectionate with her friends, generous with her fans, and lonely at the end of every day. She is often insecure and is perhaps something of a snowflake. Her combination of provocativeness yet wariness about men is not explained, but is presented as is.

Gaga is conscious that she has turned thirty. The fact that her latest boyfriend has not worked out is only part of her misery. We learn that Gaga has an old pain in her hip that contributes to her worries. Keeping up with her backup dancers requires frequent sessions with physical therapists. She would like to have children, but she anticipates that her hip could make that prohibitively painful.

In one scene, her mother (?) suggests that she not be maudlin. It is a suggestion made in kindness, but might profitably be taken in a firmer sense. The heart of the movie – if there is a plot to this slice of life – is that Gaga is putting together an album (ultimately a successful one) dedicated to her aunt Joanne who died at age 19. This is not difficult to understand. Joanne was a promising writer and artist. Gaga clearly identifies with her almost as if she herself had died at a younger age. (Joanne is one of Gaga's middle names, I have since learned.)

For technical reasons, we do not get to see much of her concerts. This is not a filmed concert. We get to hear her sing, but not enough. The movie cuts away at the beginning of huge concerts. It is a little like being left on the launch pad at the end of "The Right Stuff," just as Gordo Cooper is about to take off on one of the most exciting and harrowing flights of the entire Mercury Space Program, but we don't get to see it.

Therein lies the problem that most viewers might have. If you want to see the diva, warts and all, then this is the documentary for you, but if you want to see her in action – or more importantly hear her – then you should hold out for one of her concert films.

It's like she's a 70 year old career woman in a 30 year old body with the humility of a 20 year old. Confusing, I know.

I would have liked to seen the aftermath of her super bowl performance. I think the film really missed an opportunity there, unless Gaga didn't sign off on it. Does she maintain her "I don't give a f*** about what people think of me." mentality?

At the end of this film you will come to see how lonely she is and not okay with herself. I actually drew inspiration from that fact alone.

She's meticulous, she's usually in pain, she DOES care for her craft and has passion. If she didn't have fans and people to perform for she would likely shrivel up.

This film showed me that performing really is her calling card and she's going to have to be comfortable with being lonely at the end of the day---for a while. I have a different kind of respect for Gaga but I haven't quite figured out what that may be.

These types of documentaries always interest me, regardless if they were actually any good or needed to be made. Many people will dislike a movie like this simply because they will think it is just a way to make more money for a whole of people that already have tonnes of money. Or the problems they face aren't really problems, and watching someone whinge about how hard their life is when they have a mansion and millions of followers is excruciating. But I find it quite captivating. In many ways I think these movies capture quite a clear extract of modern pop culture and share it with the world. I find it educating to see how someone like Lady Gaga lives her life, what her day to day looks like, what annoys her or what gets her excited, or what someone of this fame's values are. Most of the time I come away from a movie like this, thankful I'm not famous, or a pop star, thankful that I have my own quiet place with a handful of people that care about me, and I was again in this viewpoint after watching Gaga.

She shares an insight on what it is like to work for producers and some of the power plays going on behind the scenes that just seem so twisted and power hungry as she shares about the dynamics at play when men with lots of money can ask for whatever they want. It's no wonder that the #Metoo movement was exposing many people like this, and long may it continue.

Alongside this Gaga also displays many of her inner traumas as she is processing her break up with her fiance and trying to return to preforming while coming back from a hip injury. You can quite clearly see the mental weight of keeping up with trends, of trying to find yourself, of being secure, or doing what you feel you were made to do. All things that Gaga is trying to put her own spin on. She decides that this is because she's become a woman and not a girl anymore, that its something to do with age. But I think this clearly shows that fame can just prolong maturity, that she lost her sense of herself in her fame of 21, 22. She didn't know what she wanted and just went with what she was told. Compared to her now deciding what she wants. This is something I feel like, I'm able to do sooooo much easier, at a much younger age, and that becoming famous in your early 20s at a time of such change, insecurity and identity development is actually such a burden, something that can take years to unravel.

So this doco, is a bit strange, but as I've said uncovers quite a hidden world and really shows that fame and fortune are really just a huge disappointment and to put your hope in them is a terrible idea. Great to watch the doco from this point of view, any other view and its just ok.