Visual albums have had a resurgence since Beyoncé’s Lemonade. It’s a wonder why more artists don’t take the leap. When we listen to certain songs, we naturally immerse ourselves in the story, making the fusion of music and film an obvious choice. The latest to take on the music-fueled journey is our fave Bronx girl, Jennifer Lopez. This Is Me…Now: A Love Story drops to prelude her new album, setting the stage for a cinematic odyssey centered around her romantic life.
Unless you’ve been stranded on an island for the last 20-plus years, you’re not new to the many loves of JLo’s life. We’ve followed her career and romances throughout the years. Because of tabloids, we’re already pretty deep into all the “I do’s” and “I don’t’s” of it all. When the trailer for This Is Me…Now: A Love Story was released, audiences prepared to see a vulnerable and stripped-down Lopez bearing more of her story than we can find in the archive of an entertainment website.
The film opens with Lopez’s character, the Artist, telling the story of Alida and Taroo, two young lovers who could not be together. After her father commands her to marry someone else, Alida prays to the gods for help and is turned into a red flower. Desperate to find her, Taroo also seeks help from the gods and is transformed into a hummingbird, forever looking for his flower. This story sets the tone for the rest of the feature as the Artist (Lopez) searches for love.
“I believe in soulmates, and signs, and hummingbirds.”
Jennifer lopez
Jennifer loves love. Since she was young, she’s wanted to find her soulmate and be in love. After a devastating heartbreak, JLo goes from relationship to relationship without giving her heart time to heal, despite the concern of her friends. Once she stops looking to others to supply her love, she turns inward to learn to be alone and love herself. Healed and whole, she’s ready to receive what she’s always wanted.
Despite the under an hour runtime, not including the post-credit sequences, the film had a star-studded cast. Among the many were KeKe Palmer, Trevor Noah, Sofia Vergara, Jenifer Lewis, Post Malone, Jane Fonda, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and more. Typically, cameos are great fun, but here, they seemed to pull you out of what could’ve been a more tender story. Sometimes, those comedic moments felt forced and robbed the story of its sentiment.
To what should be no one’s surprise, the quality of the film is stellar. The cinematography is top-tier. The soundtrack contains a few bangers, and the choreography will have many attempting to duplicate it all over TikTok. You don’t have to like every song to understand its place in the story. Dave Meyers’ direction really brought this intimate saga to life. Even if you’re not bobbing your head to every song, the lyrics and visuals complement each other well and help maintain a steady pace.
The hummingbird may never find its flower, but that doesn’t mean it stops looking.
One thing to glean from Lopez’s journey of love is that it takes strength to be a hopeless romantic. It takes exceptional grit and resilience to pursue love despite numerous heartbreaks. In This Is Me…Now: A Love Story, Lopez reclaims her narrative – the good, the bad, the messy. It showcases what we love about the multifaceted entertainer: jammin’ songs, impeccable choreography, and killer style. And although the film isn’t quite the tell-all telenovela we expected, it’s still a boisterous visual feast that gives a home to the hopeless romantic in all of us.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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