Having said that, I was absolutely hooked by the 2017 Netflix documentary “Gaga: Five Foot Two.” The film follows the pop star through making and releasing the album “Joanne” and her simultaneous preparation for her 2017 Super Bowl half-time show.  

At the beginning of this process, Gaga’s engagement had just been broken off. At the start of the film, she seems empowered by and in her singleness, but this fluctuates throughout as she seems to need more or less emotional support and companionship. This sets the tone for a larger commentary on the hardships women face in the entertainment industry. Gaga repeatedly laments that it is hard for women to come into fame on their own. Once they reach that status, they often must sacrifice personal relationships to maintain their celebrity power. Another women-specific problem is epitomized in the beef she’s had with Madonna, an artist she otherwise respects. Madonna bad-mouthed Gaga publicly but not face-to-face. To try and bring attention to this unnecessary competitiveness, the documentary features a long scene in which Gaga and Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine record the song “Hey Girl,” all about women’s solidarity and support.

The documentary also features those relationships in Gaga’s life that have withstood the pressures of fame. The most important of these is with her father, a quiet but supportive presence in almost every scene. In fact, the significance of family is undeniable, as the album she is recording is titled after an aunt who died early from an incurable disease. Track “Joanne” is an emotional ballad to a fellow artist who was taken too young. One of the film’s most impactful scenes shows Gaga presenting the song for the first time to her father and grandmother, late Joanne’s brother and mother.

Another crucial relationship is one actually garnered through fame with Gaga’s producer Mark Ronson. Despite the sexism she critiques continually, she consistently praises that she doesn’t feel similarly slighted, stunted or silenced with Mark. This is indicative of the overall optimism Gaga bounces back to after each melodramatic, tear-filled scene.  

One source of this drama is the constant physical pain she has been living with daily since a broken hip in 2013. She is apparently still trying to heal, and the film shows her dealing with pain every time she dances for a music video or sings in a show. The pain radiates throughout her body, but she shows her absolute adoration of her fans and the art they love by performing anyway, particularly in her extensive and strenuous preparation for the Super Bowl half-time show.

This dedication to fans is quite heavily highlighted. In one scene, Gaga surprises a young woman to the point of tears when the fan is talking to a cameraman about how Gaga’s music has carried her through hard and lonely times. It is this connection she wants listeners to feel through her music that the artist claims carries her through her physical and emotional pain.

The documentary itself—the film-making, music and production quality—is very well done. It grips the viewer right by the emotions from the start and is visually stimulating throughout, highlighting the calming down and maturing of Gaga’s once constantly outrageous fashion sense and musical tendencies.

Gaga herself, however, seems at times a bit less than genuine. She punctuates her repeated claim to romantic liberation with complaints of bitter loneliness at the top. More importantly, it is hard to ignore what must be exceptional personal and professional spending despite frequent remarks about social inequities. For example, she once acknowledges how grateful she is to have garnered all her wealth because otherwise her physical pain would have to go untreated. Given that Gaga is a celebrity who has been known to take time to speak with her non-famous friends, fans and family and speak up about social problems, it is disappointing that the documentary shows no real, tangible philanthropy.

The very making of a documentary film about celebrities is problematic in this regard, though, as is the amount of money spent on concerts, music videos and general Hollywood extravagance.

All-in-all, regardless of the valid and quite necessary social criticisms of some socioeconomic hypocrisy, the documentary as a film is well-made and gives raw insight into a star who at least appears to love what she does and for whom she does it. It probably won’t change your life, but it’ll keep you interested and remind you that the celebrity world is, in the end, far separated from our own.

Cover photo courtesy of the Toronto Film Festival.

“Joanne”, the title song, pulls at our heart strings. Written about Gaga’s late aunt, who tragically fell ill and passed away, “Joanne” completely covers every emotion of not wanting to let a family member go who has passed on.

“Every part of my aching art/ needs you more/ than the angels do” she sings, and everyone who has ever lost someone close to them clings to those words and sheds a tear.

“A-yo” is a perfect song to play loudly in a car full of your best friends, while “John Wayne” has a country/rock vibe, all while being very typical for Gaga in the content. “Come to mama” is a warning to all of us to be kinder to each other as Lady Gaga sings, “stop throwin’ stones at your sisters and brothers,” a desperate plea from Gaga to be more considerate of each other. “Hey Girl,” a duet with Florence Welch, shares with us the story of two women encouraging each other, not tearing each other down. I’d argue that this song is the new feminist anthem, because why should women tear each other down when women could support, encourage and build each other up?

“Angel Down” is very powerful for many reasons. The vocals are one thing, but the biggest reason is the story and message behind the lyrics. During an interview with “Beats 1,” Gaga explained that this song was heavily inspired by the shooting of Trayvon Martin, a young unarmed African-American teenager who was shot and killed on the street in his neighborhood in Florida. Gaga acknowledged the fact that as she is a white woman of privilege, she can’t really relate to what the African-American community is going through because she has never lived it. She does say how she feels she can’t just say nothing about all of this, especially with the state the country is currently in. She states how she was overwhelmed by how people just stand around and do nothing while innocent people are being shot in the street.

“Grigio Girls” is my favorite song on the whole album. This song is upbeat, relaxing and serious all at the same time. While being one of the more personal songs on the album, Gaga opens up to us about her friend Sonja who is battling cancer. It’s a very beautiful song that’s very catchy and infectious.

Full of vulnerability and freedom, but most of all love. This is her most stripped-down album to date, stepping away from the manufactured pop music expected of her and really gives her fans a taste of her folk/rock/country side. 4 out of 5 stars.

Cover photo courtesy of Amazon.

Before we start digging into the current season, let’s get the definitive order of seasons straight. Season 1, “Murder House,” is the best season of American Horror Story (AHS) thus far. Then it’s season 2, “Asylum,” regardless of all the arbitrary and extra plot lines. Then Season 3, “Coven,” because it was so campy. And to be honest, I sometimes forget that Season 4, “Freak Show,” even happened.

So if you are frustrated by my order, that’s okay, but now you know what frame of mind I’m in before we continue.

Season 5, “Hotel,” started gathering interest with hints about the theme, which were primarily generated by fan theories, and surprises that Ryan Murphy, the creative mind and director of “Scream Queens” and “Glee,” had in store for viewers.

And then, BAM, enter Lady Gaga.

I won’t lie to you, reader. I was skeptical about her acting in general and acting in one of my favorite shows, specifically. But after watching the first episode, I was drinking the Koolaid. “Checking In,” the first episode of Season 5, felt like a long Lady Gaga music video, and I was more than okay with that.

Right now, I’m not as invested in the plot as I am in the return of my favorite AHS actors. I love Kathy Bates’s character, but we’ve seen her play the overly doting mother before. We are familiar with the disintegration of a family that is primarily blamed on the father. We’ve seen angsty teenagers in Season 1, a trope that is now embodied in the male model character and addict played by Finn Witrock, whose performance in “Freak Show” was impressive and unsettling. However, Witrock’s character this season seems to have the simple purpose of adding angst to the show.

Sarah Paulson, playing an addict named Sally, has added so much depth already to a character that had plenty of opportunities to fall flat. Even though Evan Peters didn’t show up until the second episode, his debut was phenomenal; and with his ’20s inspired character and accent, there were some pretty high odds that he wouldn’t be able to deliver.

Many see a connection between the movie “Se7en“ and this season of AHS. The strongest claim for this is the title sequence of the show, which flashes the Ten Commandments in between images and clips of gore and horror. For the viewers who haven’t seen the movie, this connection may go unnoticed, but if anything, you now have a great rationale for watching “Se7en.”

I may not be overly impressed with the plot or sure of where this season will fit into my ranking, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t still watch every single episode with a level of fascination that I just don’t get with other shows.

WARNING: This season contains sexual assault that could be triggering.