For the third weekend in a row, one entertainer is getting big attention. First was the Super Bowl halftime show, then the Grammys and now the self-obsessed feature posing as a confessional biography.
“Beyonce: Life is But a Dream” (HBO, 9 p.m.), directed, written and starring Beyonce Knowles, is really not all that different from her last, quite creative network special. But at least that one blended more performances with her own video diaries expressing her doubts, fears and every-day-ness.
Here, she talks incessantly about her particular art — booty shaking R&B spectacle — and has some ideas about women power even as every one of her costumes is a swimsuit sized for maximum exploitation. She talks about giving up control even though every frame of the film is under her direction.
She feels a need to explain firing her own dad as manager, seems to think she is the first person to suffer a miscarriage, and sees her next pregnancy as practically divinely ordered (she apparently has God on a retainer; He’s supposed to decide which dance routine to use at the Billboard Awards not realizing: Nobody cares).
Details of her life do filter out, but almost inadvertantly: She didn’t grow up poor, but in a huge mansion; she has hardly any friends in which to confide; her famous husband only shows up for a few occasions (in the film anyway).
There are some high points in corners fans usually don’t see: Singing lustily in the car, or perfecting dance moves in hotel halls.
She doesn’t seem to realize that while she may be the big name entertainer of the moment, that time will fade. And maybe she’ll push her daughter – pictured in the film for the first time — to be an entertainer in 20 years just as her dad pushed her.
Oprah Winfrey tries to get ahead of the story, if only by an hour, by interviewing Beyonce about the same things on “Oprah’s Next Chapter” (OWN, 8 p.m.).