"Matangi/Maya/M. I. A." is a music documentary from 2018, so this film has its fifth anniversary now, although I struggle a bit with calling it such because the music aspect never seems to be at the center of the film or at least not the number-one essential component. But maybe it makes sense because I did not see a lot in M. I. A.'s music here talent-wise. I will get to that a little later. First, let's look at the basics: This is a collaboration between the United Kingdom, United States of America and Sri Lanka and the final mention is attributed to the protagonist's origins that are mentioned many times throughout the film. At under 100 minutes, it is not a long watch, but not super short either, and the director is Steve Loveridge and from what I read he is (close) friends with the artist that the film is all about. I am not so sure if that is a good idea because, even if trying to convince you otherwise, the film gives a very biased take on the events surrounding M. I. A.. By the way, do you put two full stops here? Just wondering. Anyway, for Loveridge this is surely the biggest career achievement, fairly self-explanatory as he has, according to imdb, not worked on any other films with the exception of a three-minute short over 15 years before this film we got here. Its title is as ironic as it gets and I wonder if this is real or if a troll created it on imdb. I don't even see M. I. A. Music videos listed for him? And there were/are so, so many. So, I guess it was really their friendship that helped him get the part. However, many people liked the outcome and it has solid ratings and receptions throughout the internet, also decent awards recognition and it did not only succeed in categories like "best music documentary", but also in general documentary categories and that is quite something, even if it did not get in at the Oscars or any other really big awards show. Speaking of the Oscars, M. I. A. Was nominated for one and this is mentioned in here as well. It was for the film "Slumdog Millionaire" that dominated the Oscars back then and she was nominated for a song from the movie that did not win.
Anyway, she managed to build a strong career since then and had good success in terms of record sales as well as critics reception. We find out that the Rolling Stone put her album in a year ranking above everybody else's on one occasion and there was special emphasis on how she was even above Amy Winehouse. Well, I cannot agree with this at all. I think Winehouse was one of the most talented artists of the 21st century and I am still sad she died and I know many songs from her and I would say they are all miles ahead of what I heard from M. I. A. Here. I means she sings and raps about explosions, stealing money and just randomly lists countries in one of her songs' lyrics if I remember correctly. I did not really perceive this as art. Sorry, if it sounds harsh, but I have a hard time seeing any real talent in her. She looks fairly stunning, especially for her age, no denying there as she was over 40 when this got made, is close to 50 now. Of course, there are also many old recordings and footage from decades ago sometimes and there, in her 20s or so, she does look much younger, but she has aged well. I wonder if she also finds this comment sexist and misogynist as she has said something in the documentary and she seems to like throwing these words around a lot. She is also definitely not a friend of Bill Maher (anymore) and there also seems to be something with Aziz Ansari as we understand when she mentions him briefly because of how compliant he is with/despite sharing similar roots with her. Anyway, back to the music before I move on to other aspects: The little popular song she performed just for fun it seemed was nice. Not gonna lie and I will give her credit there. But it was just the sake of a moment and works for a minute perhaps, but as a real song. The best music you will find in here is the one that does not stem from her. Or is music that she does perform/sing, but goes back to other musicians. The scene with Kenny Rogers' "Lucille" immediately comes to mind. This was perhaps the best music moment the film had to offer overall and that is quite telling. It was kinda sweet how she sang it there with the little Sri Lankan boy. I had to check and find out the name of the song afterwards.
Then there is a lot of elaboration on her younger years when she was part of a band that did not take the creative direction she wanted it to and we understand there were creative differences with Justine Frischmann that eventually resulted in the two going separate ways, but it was still nice they for example showed this old video there as this was clearly not staged, but a state of the events back then. The two women were still friends and got along alright. They even hug it out in the end. A great deal about M. I. A.'s career here is also about her Super Bowl inclusion. To be honest, I understand it is tough to decline such an offer with the millions, if not billions, of people watching and I did not watch the (halftime) event as I do not care for American Football, but the way she stood there next to Nicki Minaj and they looked like string puppets basically was probably something she should not have done in the first place. Totally from the music perspective. Immediately afterwards, there was trouble with the official because she gave everybody the middle finger and was even sued to pay many millions because of what she did there, but yeah this was used to show us M. I. A. As a caring mother than immediately afterwards too and that she was treated in a really unfair manner. You know what, I even partially agree. While I think that the American artists mentioned by those television hosts are probably more talented than M. I. A. From what I have heard, this was still a highly questionable statement. And the offended bowling player was just comedy gold. Honestly, I wonder what they paid him to show his outrage there. America needs to man up in certain departments.
But me siding with M. I. A. There does not mean that I approve of this documentary. Not at all. There were many weak parts. The inclusion of M. I. A. Being a caring mother figure to refugees felt staged and fake. Sorry, not gonna euphemize anything there. This was clearly a moment when we see how much she and her director were willing here to get her liked by the people. The inclusion of the terrorist group from Sri Lanka and her father's connection and her own statements and support is also at least questionable. I would not call her a terrorist, but the whole issue deserves a more unbiased take as it gets here. Admittedly, I did like her early statements about why she is not like everybody else in terms of just making her music and not doing anything else. I am not sure if she is really as interestingly controversial as they want us to see her here. As I stated earlier, I did not see too much talent in her music-wise, so maybe this controversy is to some extent also a planned way to keep her career alive and does this then really make her better than the like of Katy Perry etc. Who is also included in here. Before I get to the end of my review, I should still talk a bit about the scenes in Sri Lanka. Apparently, the film's director was not with her there, but she was instructed to record some of the stuff on her own and that is what she did, but aside from the aforementioned little cute duet, these moments did not feel good enough for me either. It felt pretty much for the sake of it rather and this was especially disappointing as the film's title puts emphasis on the protagonist's facets and how she basically unites several people inside herself with her background, even if the difference between Maya and M. I. A. Also did not become too obvious. Maybe it was meant in a way that M. I. A. She is on stage and Maya she is during interviews or so and what Matangi means should be clear. But why split all these facets from one another? I think they could have picked a better title here, even if I understand the reasons why they chose it.
On one occasion early on she told us that she was bullied back where her parents came from and same happened in London where she was born. I did feel a bit sorry for the artist here. Normally in these documentaries you get quite a few interviewees elaborating on the protagonist, but it is almost all just her in here. Spike Jonze is maybe the biggest star we see otherwise, but also only juts for a few seconds and to me he did not seem super comfortable being a part of this. Could be misperception on my end anyway. But the likes of Madonna for example who are credited here are just on footage and were not "cast" to speak on this documentary as I thought they would be before I watched. So yeah, going back to the Amy Winehouse comparison from early on, I saw this film here on the occasion of a British film retrospective that supposedly brought back the finest cinematic achievements from the UK to the screen. Having seen it, I must say I don't think at all that it belongs in the company of "Amy" and most other films shown as part of this series. It could be the very worst entry. I give "Matangi/Maya/M. I. A." a thumbs-down and suggest skipping the watch. You can never be sure to what extent M. I. A. Is really victim in all these situations, like also the NY Times escalation, but they made her look like it. I guess the truth is somewhere in-between. It is never all black or white, but yeah in this scenario I am on her side somehow, especially if she did not order the fries, then it was all a bit staged, but if you have a boy being shot in the head in a music video, it is tough for me to side with her there, no matter if she earlier posted the real video on Twitter. This is all then. Oh wait, not quite. I kinda thought M. I. A. Won an Oscar recently for another song, but I was wrong there. My bad. This is it. Skip the watch.
