At the height of her fame Britney Spears was one of the most successful pop stars in history, which was followed by a very public breakdown under the earth-shattering thunder of clicking paparazzi cameras, eventually resulting in an ongoing conservatorship that frankly should have raised many an eyebrow a lot sooner.
This is a documentary about the subject, which has some interesting segments but ultimately fails to be as illuminating as it could have been.
The most interesting part to me was the first half, chronicling Britney's well-earned rise to fame which gave me a bigger appreciation for her talent and dedication. I'm not a fan of her music by any means but I got to give her credit for her hard work. What follows is a truly heart-breaking retelling of how tabloid media started to invade and dominate her life, chipping away at her happiness and sanity. I've always found this kind of celebrity culture intrinsically exploitative, repugnant and misogynistic, especially the constant fixation in american media on female pop stars' purity and virginity. The documentary acknowledges this, yet at the same time I feel like it revels too much in that fact to the point where it becomes exploitative itself.
That overall impression never quite leaves you in the concluding half hour when the documentary delves into some of the details behind the conservatorship, which is seriously shady to say the least. As mildly conspiratorial as the subject appears at first glance the circumstances behind Britney Spears losing legal control over her entire life are genuinely disconcerting and are yet to be fully investigated. After browsing many sources I would definitely consider myself team #Freebritney too, but it's a real shame Framing Britney Spears is so very sparse with actual facts and evidence on that subject. In fact the way a lot of these "activists" are obsessing over and dissecting Britney's life and social media presence doesn't feel that much different from the way Paparazzi and tabloids operate. The concern for her as an actual human being tends to be rather low in both cases. The latter is interested in milking anything for profit, the former in creating publicity for their own social media presence and finding a canvas for projection.
Maybe the activists' work will ultimately prove beneficial for Spears herself, I sincerely hope so, but from the outside looking in it seems like they are mostly indulging in and profiteering from the same celebrity culture they are criticising, and other than the means of exploitation switching to internet platforms not much has changed since the early 2000s. If you look at the current pop stardom, the online dominance of idol culture in Japan and especially South Korea and the unethical way young performers are still being used, you can just tell the only thing keeping us from seing more tell-all documentaries down the line are cleverly placed non-disclosure agreements.
Framing Britney Spears is worth watching at least, but don't expect too much from it. From a media criticism and media analysis standpoint it's difficult to divorce it from everything it is trying to criticise.
This is a documentary about the subject, which has some interesting segments but ultimately fails to be as illuminating as it could have been.
The most interesting part to me was the first half, chronicling Britney's well-earned rise to fame which gave me a bigger appreciation for her talent and dedication. I'm not a fan of her music by any means but I got to give her credit for her hard work. What follows is a truly heart-breaking retelling of how tabloid media started to invade and dominate her life, chipping away at her happiness and sanity. I've always found this kind of celebrity culture intrinsically exploitative, repugnant and misogynistic, especially the constant fixation in american media on female pop stars' purity and virginity. The documentary acknowledges this, yet at the same time I feel like it revels too much in that fact to the point where it becomes exploitative itself.
That overall impression never quite leaves you in the concluding half hour when the documentary delves into some of the details behind the conservatorship, which is seriously shady to say the least. As mildly conspiratorial as the subject appears at first glance the circumstances behind Britney Spears losing legal control over her entire life are genuinely disconcerting and are yet to be fully investigated. After browsing many sources I would definitely consider myself team #Freebritney too, but it's a real shame Framing Britney Spears is so very sparse with actual facts and evidence on that subject. In fact the way a lot of these "activists" are obsessing over and dissecting Britney's life and social media presence doesn't feel that much different from the way Paparazzi and tabloids operate. The concern for her as an actual human being tends to be rather low in both cases. The latter is interested in milking anything for profit, the former in creating publicity for their own social media presence and finding a canvas for projection.
Maybe the activists' work will ultimately prove beneficial for Spears herself, I sincerely hope so, but from the outside looking in it seems like they are mostly indulging in and profiteering from the same celebrity culture they are criticising, and other than the means of exploitation switching to internet platforms not much has changed since the early 2000s. If you look at the current pop stardom, the online dominance of idol culture in Japan and especially South Korea and the unethical way young performers are still being used, you can just tell the only thing keeping us from seing more tell-all documentaries down the line are cleverly placed non-disclosure agreements.
Framing Britney Spears is worth watching at least, but don't expect too much from it. From a media criticism and media analysis standpoint it's difficult to divorce it from everything it is trying to criticise.