After Janet Jackson, Sheryl Crow and Jennifer Lopez, another singer’s turn to undergo the documentary treatment in 2022: Shania Twain. Available on Netflix today, Not Just a Girl reminds us how much the Canadian artist has transformed country music. Too bad we don’t learn anything astonishing or entirely new.
Posted yesterday at 6:00 a.m.
Everyone knows the story of Shania Twain. MusiMax was to broadcast its Musicography at least eight times a month during his prime years around the turn of the millennium. His difficult childhood in Timmins, Ontario, poverty, the car accident that killed his mother and stepfather, his difficult beginnings, his rise, fame, money, blablabla. The legend has been told over and over again.
The sequel has also been the subject of a large number of news reports, interviews, and articles over time. Even Oprah Winfrey got into it. The Lyme disease she contracted in 2003, her divorce worthy of a bad soap afternoon (her husband cheated on her with – yes – her best friend), her voice which deteriorated, etc.
In other words, our Shania-esque culture was quite developed before we started watching the feature film produced by Mercury Studios and directed by Joss Crowley, the man behind the recording of several musical shows, including those of Elvis Costello, from Jeff Beck and Hall & Oates.
A title that sows doubt
Before going any further, a small parenthesis regarding the title of the documentary: Not Just a Girl. If you have known the 1990s, you will agree that this is a curious choice. It looks like the autobiography of another singer from that era, Gwen Stefani. We can imagine the ex-leader of the group No Doubt calling Shania Twain while fuming over the next few days: “You stole my title! »
Moreover, it is only at the very end of the film, just before the arrival of the closing credits, that we understand why the interpreter of the hits You’re Still the One, That Don’t Impress Me much and Man! I Feel Like a Woman! chose this option. It’s also the title of a new song she just recorded and which should be on the compilation album that will land online this week.
Not Just a Girl also represents one of the themes of the documentary, which exposes the sexism that Shania Twain fought to break into country music.
Early in her career, as she tried to promote her debut album, TV hosts praised — first and foremost — her beauty. ” You are very pretty. “It’s a very nice record cover. »
PHOTO ALEXANDER HARBAUGH, PROVIDED BY NETFLIX
Shania Twain is releasing a compilation album this week to accompany the documentary, Not Just A Girl (The Highlights).
Singer Orville Peck perfectly sums up the double standard that was going on in 1992, when Shania Twain knocked on the doors of Nashville with her sexy outfits (which showed her navel…scandal!) and her need for self-determination. “Johnny Cash got away with singing songs about drug and alcohol abuse. The public accepted it. But when it was a woman, we wanted her to have good Christian values. »
“You have to work three times harder than any other man,” adds Shania Twain in front of Crowley’s lens.
With modesty
Not Just a Girl is very well documented. Archive footage abounds, such as that of an 11-year-old Shania Twain appearing on various local television shows with little budget.
Several key figures from the artist’s career also take part in the film, including Mary Bailey, her mentor and first agent, and Jon Landau, the agent she hired after the disc’s incredible success. The Woman in Me to become an international superstar who fills arenas.
On the side of the big names of yesterday and today who praise his merits and underline his contribution to the industry, we note Kelsea Ballerini, Avril Lavigne, Diplo and Lionel Richie.
Unfortunately, Not Just a Girl modestly tackles subjects on which the singer-songwriter has already opened up with more abandon.
In her memoir published in 2011, the singer recounts having been physically and sexually assaulted by Jerry, her stepfather. She makes no allusion to it on screen, apart from a statement she deliberately leaves hanging, which lets us guess that he was – at worst – angry.
In her book, Shania Twain also details much more bluntly the hell she went through when her husband and writing partner, Mutt Lange, left her. In Not Just a Girl, this still painful chapter is only touched upon. The singer seems determined to keep things light.
Come to think of it, maybe the documentary should have been called A Girl Who Just Wants to Have Fun. So much for evoking the repertoire of another diva…
Not Just a Girl lands on Netflix this Tuesday