Melania Trump understands the assignment
Transparency shouldn't be controversial.
When you watch Melania and her Manolos on the big screen, you will likely feel poor, ugly, and, if you’re also six months pregnant, a little fat. But unlike her husband, who perfected his persona as the everyman’s perception of a rich man into populism, Melania Trump is not accessible. She does not try to be. She does not kick off her stilettos to pretend she loves to live in a palatial kitchen, a la Meghan Markle, nor does she brandish a Princeton degree or freelance as a professor like her predecessors as first lady.
Melania, the documentary, is about the wife of the former and future president, who understands that her sole job is to be the wife of the former and future president, and she does it very well. It is a time capsule of one of the most unique moments of a unique woman’s life — Donald Trump’s reelection marked the second time in American history that a president won a second non-consecutive presidential term, and Melania Trump is the first naturalized American citizen to become first lady of the United States — but it is also an almost academic analysis of one of the highest profile and oddly thankless jobs in history.
Melania’s production and reception have proven much more polarizing than its content. Purchased by Amazon for $40 million and netting Mrs. Trump a cool $28 million in profit, Melania has grossed nearly $10 million in its first week, shattering expectations and breaking the decadelong record for a non-concert documentary. It also boasts a sky-high 99% rating among general audiences on Rotten Tomatoes and a truly dismal 5% among critics. Slate summed up the chattering class’s grievance that the film “contains nothing: no ideas, no point of view, no tension beyond whether the tailors will be able to properly alter her inauguration turtleneck.” In a New York Times roundtable lambasting the film, Nadja Spiegelman declares the “notable thing about this film is how boring it is.”
First Lady Melania Trump arrives for the premiere of her movie “Melania” on Jan. 29 in Washington, D.C. (Allison Robbert/AP)
“The only setup for narrative tension is whether the hem of her dress will be perfect by the time the inauguration happens,” says Spiegelman. “And even that setup — which is the setup of so many reality wedding shows, like, Will the invitations be printed on time? — gives us no narrative tension.”
The real grievance, methinks, is not with Melania, the person, but with the first lady as a job.
From the role’s inception, the job of …
Transparency shouldn't be controversial.
When you watch Melania and her Manolos on the big screen, you will likely feel poor, ugly, and, if you’re also six months pregnant, a little fat. But unlike her husband, who perfected his persona as the everyman’s perception of a rich man into populism, Melania Trump is not accessible. She does not try to be. She does not kick off her stilettos to pretend she loves to live in a palatial kitchen, a la Meghan Markle, nor does she brandish a Princeton degree or freelance as a professor like her predecessors as first lady.
Melania, the documentary, is about the wife of the former and future president, who understands that her sole job is to be the wife of the former and future president, and she does it very well. It is a time capsule of one of the most unique moments of a unique woman’s life — Donald Trump’s reelection marked the second time in American history that a president won a second non-consecutive presidential term, and Melania Trump is the first naturalized American citizen to become first lady of the United States — but it is also an almost academic analysis of one of the highest profile and oddly thankless jobs in history.
Melania’s production and reception have proven much more polarizing than its content. Purchased by Amazon for $40 million and netting Mrs. Trump a cool $28 million in profit, Melania has grossed nearly $10 million in its first week, shattering expectations and breaking the decadelong record for a non-concert documentary. It also boasts a sky-high 99% rating among general audiences on Rotten Tomatoes and a truly dismal 5% among critics. Slate summed up the chattering class’s grievance that the film “contains nothing: no ideas, no point of view, no tension beyond whether the tailors will be able to properly alter her inauguration turtleneck.” In a New York Times roundtable lambasting the film, Nadja Spiegelman declares the “notable thing about this film is how boring it is.”
First Lady Melania Trump arrives for the premiere of her movie “Melania” on Jan. 29 in Washington, D.C. (Allison Robbert/AP)
“The only setup for narrative tension is whether the hem of her dress will be perfect by the time the inauguration happens,” says Spiegelman. “And even that setup — which is the setup of so many reality wedding shows, like, Will the invitations be printed on time? — gives us no narrative tension.”
The real grievance, methinks, is not with Melania, the person, but with the first lady as a job.
From the role’s inception, the job of …
Melania Trump understands the assignment
Transparency shouldn't be controversial.
When you watch Melania and her Manolos on the big screen, you will likely feel poor, ugly, and, if you’re also six months pregnant, a little fat. But unlike her husband, who perfected his persona as the everyman’s perception of a rich man into populism, Melania Trump is not accessible. She does not try to be. She does not kick off her stilettos to pretend she loves to live in a palatial kitchen, a la Meghan Markle, nor does she brandish a Princeton degree or freelance as a professor like her predecessors as first lady.
Melania, the documentary, is about the wife of the former and future president, who understands that her sole job is to be the wife of the former and future president, and she does it very well. It is a time capsule of one of the most unique moments of a unique woman’s life — Donald Trump’s reelection marked the second time in American history that a president won a second non-consecutive presidential term, and Melania Trump is the first naturalized American citizen to become first lady of the United States — but it is also an almost academic analysis of one of the highest profile and oddly thankless jobs in history.
Melania’s production and reception have proven much more polarizing than its content. Purchased by Amazon for $40 million and netting Mrs. Trump a cool $28 million in profit, Melania has grossed nearly $10 million in its first week, shattering expectations and breaking the decadelong record for a non-concert documentary. It also boasts a sky-high 99% rating among general audiences on Rotten Tomatoes and a truly dismal 5% among critics. Slate summed up the chattering class’s grievance that the film “contains nothing: no ideas, no point of view, no tension beyond whether the tailors will be able to properly alter her inauguration turtleneck.” In a New York Times roundtable lambasting the film, Nadja Spiegelman declares the “notable thing about this film is how boring it is.”
First Lady Melania Trump arrives for the premiere of her movie “Melania” on Jan. 29 in Washington, D.C. (Allison Robbert/AP)
“The only setup for narrative tension is whether the hem of her dress will be perfect by the time the inauguration happens,” says Spiegelman. “And even that setup — which is the setup of so many reality wedding shows, like, Will the invitations be printed on time? — gives us no narrative tension.”
The real grievance, methinks, is not with Melania, the person, but with the first lady as a job.
From the role’s inception, the job of …
