Film finds the grit behind Gaga grandeur

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This article was published 21/09/2017 (2941 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sex!

Now that I have your attention…

That chestnut joke — the staple of a million fake ads and student council election posters — puts one in mind of artists such as Lady Gaga.

They may gain our attention with provocative behaviour and salacious wardrobe (remember Gaga’s meat dress?) But their staying power of our attention ultimately relies on what comes after they have our attention.

Answering that question, the new Netflix Gaga doc Five Foot Two at times seems like it’s going to be another empty exercise in facilitated star worship along the lines of behind-the-scenes feature fluff on, say, Justin Bieber or Katy Perry. Documenting the lead-up to the release of Gaga’s album Joanne in 2016, it blends concert scenes, rehearsal footage and staged fan interactions with a soupçon of family drama.

Want dish? Gaga talks about being slagged by Madonna, who accused Gaga of ripping off the song Express Yourself when she would have preferred a face-to-face between two Italian girls from New York.

“She wouldn’t look me in the eye and tell me that I was reductive or whatever,” Gaga says. “Telling me you think I’m a piece of s–t through the media? It’s like a guy passing me a note through his friend.”

Want drama? Gaga addresses her breakup with actor Taylor Kinney. Want skin? Gaga is sunbathing topless poolside while discussing her wardrobe for her upcoming tour (which kind of negates the whole issue of wardrobe, but never mind).

Yet much of the time, director Chris Moukarbel’s verité doc does feel more than a cynical exercise in marketing. There is art in its opening shot, an unflattering angle on Gaga as she is about to be hoisted on a harness during her halftime performance at the Super Bowl, revealing the mundane mechanics behind the illusion of flight. It’s as deft a visual metaphor for a concert performance as you could ask for.

The film also deviates from the usual glamour profession stuff to address the artist’s issues with chronic pain, exacerbated by a broken hip injury she suffered in 2013. That issue dovetails into the painful family history behind the song Joanne, about an aunt Gaga lost to a rare and tragic disease.

In short, the film uses pain to show a human side to Gaga that doesn’t play to the usual pop-star fantasy of non-stop parties, booze and beats. The fact that Gaga is willing to show that side of herself speaks well of her future as an artist, after time inevitably defuses the sex-bomb stuff.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca