I have a sort of love-hate relationship with Madonna. She is often two very different people rolled into one. On one hand, you have the feminist icon rebel who has paved the way for all female artists, good and bad. This is the Madonna I admire. On the other hand, you have the prima donna-ish pampered celebrity. The good thing about Truth or Dare is that we see much of the latter, with few apologies or any sugar coating.
Truth or Dare is directed by Alek Keshishian, and for some reason I'm not quite sure of yet, shot entirely in black and white. Only a select few movies like Schindler's List can use this device in this day and age and get away with it. This is not one of them. Instead of lending the film a timeless, universal quality, it's just pretentious. This is just Madonna doing her thing; not a World War II epic. Madonna does her thing, not taking a single notice of the camera crew, just going through what we imagine is her daily routine.
We think it's her daily routine, but there are carefully engineered moments in the film when she's pretending not to notice all the cameras and sound equipment but is clearly playing to them. The scene where she visits her mother in the cemetery is the perfect example. Most public figures would be glad to talk about their deceased parents for a few minutes in an interview and leave it at that. Madonna drags us along to the cemetery to visit her mother's grave, where she brings flowers and shows us what a thoughtful, loving daughter she is. This is the only part of the film that seriously bugs me. It's obviously a very private matter and she thinks nothing of flaunting it and using it to her advantage. It's tacky.
Mostly, though, we see many, many people fussing over and kowtowing to Her Highness. There are at least three scenes of Madonna being massaged and a few more of Madonna in a chair, having her hair and makeup done. At best, she's unaware of her servants; at worst, rude and surly. She snaps at her poor sound guys when she can't hear herself in her mic during one disastrous concert. Celebrities often claim to be just like "normal" people; forgetting that most "normal" people don't have chauffers and cooks and a team of dancers to keep us amused. The scenes with her and her posse illustrate this so well. It's almost as if she's rubbing her status in our collective faces.
Her hapless then-boyfriend, Warren Beatty, shows up here and there and takes lots of abuse. During the aforementioned concert from hell, she snaps "get over here!" and proceeds to treat him like a cocker spaniel for the rest of the scene. Who else gets to talk to her boyfriend that way and have it recorded for posterity? He hides behind sunglasses and looks mortified in all of his scenes. It's a small wonder he didn't ask them to be cut.
In the one or two scenes where Madonna tells us how hard her life is, it rings totally false. There is very little evidence of hardship or difficulty here. Her biggest challenge is to not get arrested for obscenity in Toronto. She cites celebrity fans as one problem that she faces. Otherwise, she doesn't show us a single bad thing about being a pop star.
Truth or Dare is meant to show Madonna as a real, flesh-and-blood person with typical human flaws, but if anything, it's an illustration of what fame does to people and how they become isolated and protected from reality. It's far from a flattering portrait, except in certain parts (like the scene in the cemetery and another scene where she tearfully proclaims that Sean Penn is the love of her life). As a documentary, it's pretty good; the editing is quite good. Truth or Dare is an interesting couple hours for die hard fans and die hard not-fans alike.
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