Halftime

The documentary follows Jennifer Lopez around two events: entering the awards season for her part in Hustlers, and preparing the Super Bowl halftime show in 2020. The two fall in the same months and the film runs them together. Amanda Micheli directs. It opened the Tribeca film festival in 2022 and was released on Netflix. The halftime section is the most concrete part. The show was shared with Shakira and the time was divided between the two performers; the film shows how that constraint was worked. An image of children in cages was placed in the show, a direct reference to the argument about detained migrant children at the time, and the production side wanted the passage reduced; that argument is in the film. The second strand is the awards season. Lopez's Oscar nomination does not come, and the film gives that moment, her team's reaction and the aftermath without cutting away. Underneath sits the question of how a woman reaching fifty is seen in the industry, and the sorting she has undergone by both age and Latina identity is discussed. The documentary was made with the performer's own production company; the critical distance is limited and it can be read as a defence. Who it is for: viewers who like pop music documentary and behind the scenes work. Who it is not for: it is one sided, the structure is loose, and the narrative is thin for anyone uninterested in Lopez.