Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991)

Review

Before Michael Moore commercialized the American documentary, public relations expert and genius career builder Madonna produced this attempted cred-enhancing, under-my-skin autodocumentary centered around her 1989-1990 world tour (sure, the director is Alek Keshishian, but it's not hard to pick up who's really in charge here).

The film is instantly appealing thanks in large to Keshishian's delightfully skillful direction, combining grainy black and white backstage footage with crisp, posh segments from the star's shows. However, being largely unnarrative, the film is daunting at 115 minutes, moving slowly and overly meticulously in parts and discussing issues that probably won't attract all viewers. One should give Madonna credit for being loose, courageous and welcoming as we're given a fairly open-hearted look into the life of the young singer. Still, one cannot evade detecting a not unsignificant sense of embarrassing propaganda as Madonna without a doubt has a mission here. Like Warren Beatty so eloquently puts it, "She doesn't want to live off-camera. There's nothing to say off-camera".