Ezra's work with the OJ doc was phenomenal; this sounds to be the same caliber. Prince was an incredibly complex person, with some major faults and did harm people, but it also dims his his work to present it without additional context as to why or what was motivating his creative pursuits. Then it's just a Vh1 countdown show of his hits.
I agree. One of the things mentioned in the article is Netflix's pivot from actual documentaries to gauzy celebrity "documentaries." If you aren't going to be objectively critical, then you're just making a puff piece hagiography.
Someone who worked on the documentary and had access to the vault footage said that it was like someone's Instagram account in that it was very curated because Prince chose what to put in the vault. Getting an edited version of someone like that only serves to glorify their image, not see them as a real person.
I learned a lot about his process and his personality (as well as his flaws) from reading Mayte's book, so I can only imagine the additional insight we would get from the interviews with Wendy and Lisa, his sister, etc.
He met his future wife Mayte Garcia when she was 16 and he was 35. He invited her to join his latest band, the New Power Generation, and became her legal guardian. He told her that he idolized her virginity, and although she moved to Minnesota to be with him, they didn't have sex until she was 19.
The two anecdotes I remember about Prince from my youth were not mentioned in this article so I'm not sure if they are discussed in the documentary. But knowing these two anecdotes is why his problematic history with women was never a surprise to me.
- Carmen Electra said that she was expected to be in full hair and makeup 24/7, including when she went to sleep and he was out of town
- the Sinéad O'Connor situation (she told different versions of this story over the years but I don't doubt the general gist of what happened)
I still rewatch OJ: Made in America because of how nuanced and in-depth it was, so much substance hardly any filler vs. so many other netflix true crime docs that i'm like this didn't need to be 5 hours, bill curtis covered this in 30 mins on american justice...
I don't mind if a movie/tv show is long if it's well done and worth the time spent watching it. But I do get annoyed when I watch documentaries/docuseries that are multiple episodes/hours long and they clearly didn't need to be. If you're just going to regurgitate what I read on Wikipedia in 2 minutes, don't waste my time!
Given how much access he had for footage and interviews, I really hope that this Prince documentary is released some day.
There's a section in the article about this performance. Questlove said that Prince was STEAMED about not being on Rolling Stone's 100 greatest guitar players so he used this performance as a huge middle finger to Jann Wenner.
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Ezra's work with the OJ doc was phenomenal; this sounds to be the same caliber. Prince was an incredibly complex person, with some major faults and did harm people, but it also dims his his work to present it without additional context as to why or what was motivating his creative pursuits. Then it's just a Vh1 countdown show of his hits.
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I agree. One of the things mentioned in the article is Netflix's pivot from actual documentaries to gauzy celebrity "documentaries." If you aren't going to be objectively critical, then you're just making a puff piece hagiography.
Someone who worked on the documentary and had access to the vault footage said that it was like someone's Instagram account in that it was very curated because Prince chose what to put in the vault. Getting an edited version of someone like that only serves to glorify their image, not see them as a real person.
I learned a lot about his process and his personality (as well as his flaws) from reading Mayte's book, so I can only imagine the additional insight we would get from the interviews with Wendy and Lisa, his sister, etc.
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Uhhhhhhhhh......... ?!?
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I read her book a few years ago so the details are now fuzzy, but yup.
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Her mom is the one who gave the tape of Mayte dancing to his band in the hopes of Prince seeing it.
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The two anecdotes I remember about Prince from my youth were not mentioned in this article so I'm not sure if they are discussed in the documentary. But knowing these two anecdotes is why his problematic history with women was never a surprise to me.
- Carmen Electra said that she was expected to be in full hair and makeup 24/7, including when she went to sleep and he was out of town
- the Sinéad O'Connor situation (she told different versions of this story over the years but I don't doubt the general gist of what happened)
Reply
I still rewatch OJ: Made in America because of how nuanced and in-depth it was, so much substance hardly any filler vs. so many other netflix true crime docs that i'm like this didn't need to be 5 hours, bill curtis covered this in 30 mins on american justice...
Reply
I don't mind if a movie/tv show is long if it's well done and worth the time spent watching it. But I do get annoyed when I watch documentaries/docuseries that are multiple episodes/hours long and they clearly didn't need to be. If you're just going to regurgitate what I read on Wikipedia in 2 minutes, don't waste my time!
Given how much access he had for footage and interviews, I really hope that this Prince documentary is released some day.
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I found out you can buy it (at 7 digital here in Canada for me) - it's brilliant.
And Prince? Everything has already been said - his music speaks for itself.
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There's a section in the article about this performance. Questlove said that Prince was STEAMED about not being on Rolling Stone's 100 greatest guitar players so he used this performance as a huge middle finger to Jann Wenner.
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