OnScreen Review: 'GAGA: Five Foot Two' (Netflix Original Documentary)

Lewis Baird

Lady Gaga is infamous for her unique style of fashion and music. However, she is one of the most famous musicians in the world. Her fanbase is huge and she is known for loving her fans plus being truly devoted to pleasing them. In this intriguing documentary, we get an insight into the life of this talented woman's journey to releasing her most recent album, Joanne, also preparing to perform at the super bowl and dealing with ill health.

Usually you would find that a documentary about a celebrity would be lighthearted, uninteresting and a bit of a bland journey. However, within this documentary there really are levels to the journey Lady Gaga takes us on through the direction of Chris Moukarbel.

Moukarbel shows us the struggle Gaga (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) goes through as she is set to release her new album, Joanne, named after her auntie who died at the age of 19. This is the most personal album that Lady Gaga has released, not only that, she has re-styled herself to make her appearance more naturalistic. She is struggling to contemplate how her fans are going to feel about this dramatic change. I feel that this is a really interesting moment in the popstars history to capture and Moukarbel has done this up close with no filter, he shows her vulnerable. This is unlike how we usually see the sassy and powerful queen of pop.

Lady Gaga has fibromyalgia, Chris Moukarbel emphasizes the pain she goes through and shows that she tries her hardest to make the best she can out of the situation. Even if this means to injure herself or cause severe pain she performs or works to the best of her ability to get the best result.

There was also a section on press exposure which is possibly the most hard hitting factual portrayal of the press I have seen. This star exhausted herself to promote her new album and attempt to embrace the exposure of her new naturalistic look. There is once again no filter through this process and the documentary shows the highs and lows of how being exposed to the media can affect this high-profile artist.

Now, I know what you're thinking, surely a diva like Lady Gaga has to have her meltdowns. And yes, she does, there is one while she was on the set of American Horror Story: Roanoke, which showed her not being notified of a new piece of direction. Also, there was the rehearsals on the run up to the super bowl performance where she was not happy with some of the artistic choices. Therefore, was very stern on the changes she would like to be made.

This documentary is possibly the best celebrity insight I have seen and I feel like the target audience obviously is her die-hard fans. But, even if you just appreciate her music you will enjoy getting to know the woman beneath the wigs, make-up and the meat dress. She's matured and is a much richer artist because of this. What is nice about this documentary is the fact that Chris Moukarbel does not hold back and did not show the artist in a filtered way, he unleashes the full of Gaga's life on the audience. I am going to give this documentary a rating of 3.5/5. Works well as a documentary and it digs deep into some of the unknown facts of an internationally famous artist.