The first notices are rolling in for Amazon MGM Studios‘ controversial, big-budget First Lady documentary Melania.
Described as “an intimate chronicle that offers a rare glimpse into the life of Melania Trump, exploring her role as First Lady and her relationship with the President,” the film marks the comeback of filmmaker Brett Ratner, who has been a pariah in Hollywood following multiple accusations of sexual harassment, which he has denied.
Critics, who weren’t invited to preview screenings or the premiere that took place Thursday in Washington, D.C., are now catching up with the movie and it’s as bad as many predicted. Many of the first reviews are coming out of the UK and Australia given the time zone differences.
The UK’s Independent gives the film one star out of five, saying: “[The] First Lady is a preening, scowling void of pure nothingness in this ghastly bit of propaganda … Hitting cinemas as the streets of America remain filled with the angry and grieving – with the country on the verge of an irreparable schism – the vulgar, gilded lifestyle of the Trumps makes them look like Marie Antoinette skulking in her cake-filled chateau, or Hermann Göring’s staring up at his looted Monet.”
The publication continued: “The “film” is part propaganda, sure, and part sop to Big Tech companies who require constant regulatory approval for financial manoeuvrings. Even then, it is bad. It will exist as a striking artefact – like The Birth of a Nation or Triumph of the Will – of a time when Americans willingly subordinated themselves to a political and economic oligopoly.”
The Guardian, whose critic said he had the cinema all to himself at his screening this morning, also gave the film one star, calling it “Dispiriting, deadly and unrevealing – there is a decent documentary to be made about the former model from Slovenia, but this one is unredeemable … I’m not even sure it qualifies as a documentary, exactly, so much as an elaborate piece of designer taxidermy, horribly overpriced and ice-cold to the touch and proffered like a medieval tribute to placate the greedy king on his throne.”
The Express‘ critic, one of seven people in the cinema he attended, gave the film 2/5 stars, calling it “a painfully sincere Trump puff piece, all style and no substance”: “Many scenes bore, as Melania – who narrates throughout at a monotone pitch – spends too much time in service lifts with sycophants and in painfully stiff, orchestrated scenes discussing her all-important work. … Of course, President Donald Trump himself features prominently in scenes that just about begin to humanise his wife, with her backstage YMCA dancing and suggestions for altering his inauguration speech. However, her singing Michael Jackson in the back of a limo is pretty awkward amid a totally humourless and extremely sincere documentary that takes itself far too seriously.”
London’s Evening Standard had kinder reflections in its 3/5 star review: “Is the film worth $40 million? I can’t see it myself, except for the shot of Kamala Harris at the inauguration, which is worth the entrance ticket, but if Jeff Bezos and his millions are that easily parted, good luck to her. The greatest relief in the whole thing came when she actually took her heels off, after three balls, and, as she says, 22 hours without sleep. She’s a phenomenon. What, exactly, is her relationship with Trump, who was effusive about, “my beautiful wife”? We don’t know. The enigma remains.”
Australian outlet the Sydney Morning Herald gave the film two and half stars, calling it “beautifully shot but short on substance.” Subscribe to read more of that one. The Atlantic, another subscriber-only joint, made its stance clear with the headline “The Melania Trump Documentary Is a Disgrace: The exorbitant film captures the rotten state of the entertainment industry.”
Australian substack Screen Space also gave the film one star: “Watching Melania get fitted for expensive clothes in gaudy rooms, or talk up how extravagantly staged she demands her balls be – and both happen a lot in Brett Ratner’s unrelentingly boring feature doc debut – only strengthen perceptions of her as a chilly, lifeless socialite wannabe… Melania is not the story of the First Lady of American politics, but the imagining of the first homeland monarch in U.S. history. This is not a film concerned at all with the America of today; it is propaganda that serves the formation of a future non-democracy.”
We’ll update this page as we get the first stateside reviews in, including Deadline’s own.
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