I would have rather watched a group of bad karaoke singers do renditions of Mariah Carey songs for 8 hours instead of watching this movie. Wow, bad acting, bad, story, bad everything. I took a shit on The Hottie and The Nottie for being nothing more than a reason to remind everyone that Hilton is a “hottie” and this is a movie to remind everyone that Mariah Carey is a singer and had to struggle or something.
The acting debut of pop music diva Mariah Carey loosely traces the singer’s real-life trajectory to fame. Carey is Billie, an impoverished girl growing up in a tough New York neighborhood abandoned by her drug-addicted mother and dreaming of stardom. Billie gets her big break when her group’s demo tape is heard by Julian Dice (Max Beesley), an infamous bad boy DJ and record producer in the club scene of the early ’80s. A volatile relationship soon develops between Dice and Billie while her professional life takes off, leading to fame, fortune, and heartbreak. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
Just stick to singing Mariah, please do that. Actually, the only good thing about this movie is the singing that Carey does. That is her best skill, not trying to act which is weird considering this movie is loosely based on her real and she should have some sort of emotional connecting point to the story. But instead we are getting early, era Kristen Stewart acting here. How could a movie about your life and with you as the star, have any sort of emotional payoff or connection for the audience. It’s like watching really bad high school theater actors trying out for Macbeth.
This is supposed to be a personal movie, given what it is loosely based on, but it comes off with so many maudlin cliches that it looses any sort of emotional impact. I get that it is played up as a drama, thus making it slightly compelling, but it just has this air of desperation in wanting to seem edgy and even impactful. So overwrought with needless melodrama, the only bright spots are from the musical numbers which is Carey’s strong point. Everything else becomes laughable and to big for Carey to handle in terms of carrying a movie with her limited acting.
It’s a pretty ambitious movie for a first time actress, especially when you are hoping to tell a captivating story about turning ones life around. It is just lost amongst all the sort of cliches you expect from a movie about a rising star. It’s tries for grittiness, but it seems so cutesy that you can’t take it seriously. I can’t knock the movie for trying something, but it’s not outright horrific like my previous atrocities, but it certainly isn’t something I want to watch again. Heck if I could I would go back into time and tell myself to watch her music videos for something better from her.
