"Mary J Blige's My Life" just premiered on Amazon Prime and is now available on demand there and on Amazon Instant Video and other streaming services. Even with a short running time of just 80 min., the documentary could've used a trim by a good 15-20 min. What this really feels like is a "VH-1 Behind the Music" episode. Also very little footage from the early 90s when all of this was taking place. Roth mostly interviews Blige and a number of people who were around tat that time (Sean "Diddy" Combs, etc.) but there is very little insight from any of them. That aside, the documentary is at best mildly entertaining or insightful. This is touted as the 25th anniversary of that album, and perhaps this was filmed in 2019, the actual 25th anniversary but of course now upon its release we are 2 years later. Blige's 1994 album "My Life" meant for Blige. Couple of comments: this documentary is the latest from director by Vanessa Roth (who won an Oscar for the 2007 short documentary "Freeheld"). "The demo shows the pain of a generation", he observes, and before we know it, Blige has recorded her 1992 debut album "What's the 411?" and then a few years later comes "My Life". Blige had a good voice, and at one point a demo comes to the attention of a producer. We then go back in time, to her upbringing in "the projects" in New York, where life was tough, and her heroes were people like Aretha Franklin. "I've done pretty much all I've wanted to do" Blige comments. Blige's My Life" (2021 release 82 min.) opens, we are reminded of Blige's many accomplishments, including 9 Grammys and 50 million records sold worldwide. Available exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on June 25, 2021.Īs "Mary J. The music is impressive and provides the platform, however, it's the woman who shines through here. Sharing her story and how she has persisted through the years turns this into a story of feelings, truth, and heart. Mary J Blige has had emotional struggles, survived an abusive relationship, and overcome addictions to drugs and alcohol. Actress Taraji P Henson and multi-Grammy winning musician Alicia Keys both provide perspective on Mary's influence, not just in the music world, but also in helping women believe in themselves.
How successful has she been? Try 31 Grammy nominations (9 wins) and Two Oscar nominations (including one for acting). "My Life" was Mary's second album, and she's credited with blending hip-hop and R&B and bringing a new music style to the masses. Of course, Combs is now a hugely successful producer, musician, and entrepreneur, and he's forthcoming in his recollections of those early years. It was Sean "Diddy" Combs who discovered her for Uptown Records. We learn of her childhood in poverty living in the Yonkers projects, and how singing was her escape - a way to feel free.
As if to caution viewers that this is more than a concert film, we are five minutes in before director Roth allows us to hear Mary sing. Vanessa Roth won an Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject FREEHELD (2007), and as director of this film, she turned it into a profile of the woman behind the music, resulting in surprisingly effective life lessons for those in need. The project began as a way to document the 25th anniversary of Mary J Blige's enormously influential album "My Way" and her celebratory live performance to mark the milestone of the album. With Share My World, Blige definitely arrived.Greetings again from the darkness. Kelly (with whom she duets on the inviting "It's On") and Babyface to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis doesn't come across as forced or robotic, but, in fact, is impressively organic. Although high tech, the production of everyone from R. For all their slickness, emotive cuts like "Get to Know You Better," "Love Is All We Need," and "Keep Your Head" left no doubt that Blige was indeed a singer of depth and substance. Her strongest and most confident effort up to that point, Share had much more character, personality, and honesty than most of the assembly line fare dominating urban radio in 1997. But Blige did show promise, and by the time she recorded her third album, Share My World, she had developed into a fairly convincing soul/urban singer. When What's the 411? was released in 1992, she was exalted as "the new Chaka Khan"- a definite exaggeration, considering how uneven that debut album was. Blige in the beginning was simply ridiculous.
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