‘JENNIFER LOPEZ: HALFTIME’ is a backstage documentary that’s meant to be an intimate look on the career of Jennifer Lopez, tracing about 30 years in her life and journey as one of the most successful Latina entertainers.
It centers on her turning 50 years old on July 24 three years ago, her rehearsals for her half time performance in the Superbowl, her nomination in the Golden Globe as best supporting actress for her role as a pole dancer-stripper in the women-empowerment 2019 flick, “Hustlers”, and how the Academy Awards later snubbed her when most quarters think she deserves her first Oscar nomination.
J.Lo started her career as a Fly Girl, a dancer in the TV show “In Living Color” in 1991.
In 1993, she pursued acting and got to play the lead role in “Selena”, the filmbio about the Hispanic singer killed by her fan. She later starred in “Anaconda” (1997) and got rave reviews with George Clooney in “Out of Sight” (1998).
This made her the highest paid Latina actress in Hollywood getting over $1 million per film. She has since then made more hits like “Maid in Manhattan” and “The Wedding Planner”.
In 1999, she forayed into pop singing and recorded her debut album, “On the 6”, which spawned the hit songs “Let’s Get Loud” and “Waiting for tonight.
Her next albums, “J. Lo” and “This is Me… Then” also both did well.
Later, she also had her own police drama series, “Shades of Blue”, that ran for two seasons, and served as a judge in “World of Dance” and “American Idol”. She aims to reach the widest audiences possible She had her own residency show at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas,
The docu also shows how J. Lo became involved in political issues.
Previously, she has declared “I’m not into politics”, but she was compelled to speak out when she saw how Hispanic immigrants are being maltreated by the U.S. government under then Pres. Trump’s anti-immigration policy.
She specially decried the fact that small children are being cruelly separated from their parents in the detention camps.
J. Lo shows how resilient she can be. As a Latina performer, she is a perennial underdog and is often talent not so seriously. Her lovelife is fodder to gossip magazines and even the clothes she wear, just like her prominent butt.
She has both been vilified and vindicated a number of times that reinventing herself and making resets have become her strength, the secret to her durability.
She can be driven and hyperfocused, like her intense preparations for the Superbowl Halftime show. She says in the docu:
“My whole life, I’ve been battling. Battling to be heard, to be seen, to be taken seriously.” She confesses she got so hurt when her butt becomes the butt of jokes and being called “a Hollywood serial wife”.
She comes across in those scenes as very human, but very tough. The end credits says she has sold 80 million records and her merchandise items generated over $5 billion! Well, obviously J.
Lo is nobody’s fool and she can take on the males in the industry with a pair of boxing gloves.
“Halftime” will win you over, and we wish some serious local documentary filmmakers can also make in depth warts and all docus on our own superstars like Nora Aunor, Vilma Santos and Sharon Cuneta. They all deserve it.
