Lady Gaga's documentary "Gaga: Five Foot Two" was released on Sept. 22 and now that a few days have gone by, critics have had time to share what they think of the film.
Directed by Chris Moukarbel, the film follows Lady Gaga — real name Stefani Germanotta — in the year leading up to the release of her latest album "Joanne" and her 2017 Super Bowl halftime performance.
In the film, Gaga addresses her fallout with ex-fiancé Taylor Kinney, as well as the debilitating chronic pain she has had to suffer for years. It is a fresh look at the pop star who faces the camera without makeup as she smokes and talks about her insecurities, friendships, questions and triumphs.
The 100-minute documentary, however, could not escape comparisons to Madonna's 1991 documentary, "Truth or Dare" — much like how Gaga has always been plagued by comparisons to Madonna herself.
Both films have been noted to have massage table scenes, pep talks with dancers before a big show, traveling luxuriously in cars with chauffeurs and private planes with makeup artists, and expressing profound loneliness while sitting in the middle of a fancy hotel room.
Of course, the singer also used the documentary to voice out her thoughts about the issue between the two singers.
"I could never wrap my head around the fact [that Madonna] wouldn't look me in the eye and tell me I was reductive. I saw it on TV," Gaga said, after pointing out that her Italian upbringing means she is used to facing critics head-on instead of hearing about things behind her back.
The documentary is also haunted by the absence of any career talk. It stays silent on how Gaga is perceived these days by the media: that she is no longer the star that she once was.
Given the less than stellar reception of "Joanne" characterized by Gaga's lowest-charting lead single and the lower than the usual number of album sales, the documentary could have been the perfect opportunity for Gaga to explore the direction her career has taken.
Still, Gaga revels in personal triumphs that are, of course, more important than sales.
Speaking about her chronic pain, Gaga said at the Toronto International Film Festival this month, "It's freeing for me because... there is a degree of self deprecation and shame that comes along with feeling in pain a lot."
"And I want people that watch it — that think that there's no way that I live that way because they see me dance and sing, that it couldn't possibly be so — to know that I struggle with things like them, and that I work through it and that it can be done, and that we have to stick together," she added.
"Five Foot Two" is available for streaming on Netflix.
