Holy crap, this movie was so wonderfully terrible. Where do I start? Well, I read somewhere that the director of Glitter had only worked with television before and wow, is this obvious. The cinematography is flat and dull, broken only by about five thousand pan shots over the city--okay, okay, we get it, she's in New York--and the treacly, slow-motion shots of Mariah leaping into her skeevy boyfriend's/DJ's arms.
When it comes to octaves, boy, has the woman got range. But nowhere else. She can't act worth crap, and on a related note, I can't stand to watch her sing. She's always whipping her head around emotionally and pouting. What a voice--why can't she do something worthwhile with it?!
...oh, and don't forget her supposed naiveté and innocence--I loved it!! Mariah is so shy about being dressed in a silver bikini, sniffle sniffle. I loved the scene with her boyfriend (Dice) leaping in to rescue her when she's too uncomfortable with the beefy Chippendale-types crawling all over her in a video shoot. She looks on the verge of tears and totally ridiculous--sort of like she's got bugs under her skin and is trying to squirm them out--but the director is shouting, "Yes, yes, perfect!" Uh, did he WANT her to look like she was being molested? Later, studly, sensitive Dice decries her publicity photos by sniffing that she looks like a porn star. "P--porn star?" gulps Mariah, horrified. In almost every scene, though, she's dressed in something short and skin-tight. P--porn star? But I'm so ch--chaste and v--virginal!
Mariah sniffles like she's shy and humble and innocent throughout the movie, an act which is punctuated by brief scenes in which she belts out formulaic pop ballads like a woman who's been performing for a decade and a half. Every so often, there is a scene to indicate that she's climbed another rung on the ladder--for example, she's on TV briefly/Dice sees a headline reading that she's sold out Madison Square Garden--but none of them explain how or why. All we know is that she didn't finish a video. Oh, and she had a song on the radio once. Nice development. They must have cut about a mile and a half of film out of this thing.
The best example of Mariah's incredible acting ability can be found in a scene in which Timothy, the music producer with whom Dice has made some sort of secret monetary deal, breaks into their apartment. Mariah is alone, and her expression does not change once during a scene in which he slowly saunters towards her to grab her face and growl, "I don't want to hurt you...but I will." It's hilarious to watch her cheeks being squashed while her eyes continue to stare blankly into some void. (Despite being in the kitchen, by the way, she doesn't make a move towards anything that might protect her.) At one point, she asks Timothy how he got into the apartment, and he doesn't answer. Clearly the writers didn't care to figure it out either.
The ending is so perfect and wonderfully contrived that I can't do it justice here. Let's just say that Mariah leaves the concert at Madison Square Garden, finds a note from Dice, and goes immediately from NYC to Maryland in her limo. From the concert. She's still dressed in the glittery gown she performed in. Guess the limo driver didn't have anywhere to be that night. Fantastic!
When it comes to octaves, boy, has the woman got range. But nowhere else. She can't act worth crap, and on a related note, I can't stand to watch her sing. She's always whipping her head around emotionally and pouting. What a voice--why can't she do something worthwhile with it?!
...oh, and don't forget her supposed naiveté and innocence--I loved it!! Mariah is so shy about being dressed in a silver bikini, sniffle sniffle. I loved the scene with her boyfriend (Dice) leaping in to rescue her when she's too uncomfortable with the beefy Chippendale-types crawling all over her in a video shoot. She looks on the verge of tears and totally ridiculous--sort of like she's got bugs under her skin and is trying to squirm them out--but the director is shouting, "Yes, yes, perfect!" Uh, did he WANT her to look like she was being molested? Later, studly, sensitive Dice decries her publicity photos by sniffing that she looks like a porn star. "P--porn star?" gulps Mariah, horrified. In almost every scene, though, she's dressed in something short and skin-tight. P--porn star? But I'm so ch--chaste and v--virginal!
Mariah sniffles like she's shy and humble and innocent throughout the movie, an act which is punctuated by brief scenes in which she belts out formulaic pop ballads like a woman who's been performing for a decade and a half. Every so often, there is a scene to indicate that she's climbed another rung on the ladder--for example, she's on TV briefly/Dice sees a headline reading that she's sold out Madison Square Garden--but none of them explain how or why. All we know is that she didn't finish a video. Oh, and she had a song on the radio once. Nice development. They must have cut about a mile and a half of film out of this thing.
The best example of Mariah's incredible acting ability can be found in a scene in which Timothy, the music producer with whom Dice has made some sort of secret monetary deal, breaks into their apartment. Mariah is alone, and her expression does not change once during a scene in which he slowly saunters towards her to grab her face and growl, "I don't want to hurt you...but I will." It's hilarious to watch her cheeks being squashed while her eyes continue to stare blankly into some void. (Despite being in the kitchen, by the way, she doesn't make a move towards anything that might protect her.) At one point, she asks Timothy how he got into the apartment, and he doesn't answer. Clearly the writers didn't care to figure it out either.
The ending is so perfect and wonderfully contrived that I can't do it justice here. Let's just say that Mariah leaves the concert at Madison Square Garden, finds a note from Dice, and goes immediately from NYC to Maryland in her limo. From the concert. She's still dressed in the glittery gown she performed in. Guess the limo driver didn't have anywhere to be that night. Fantastic!