Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

It's really sad to watch such an underwhelming and uninspired documentary about a great artist like Gaga (cause I truly believe she's an amazing artist and performer).It's just boring. You can actually see people bored of listening talk at some scenes. There are moments when you kind of feel it may grasp into something beautiful and unique, like when she talks about how lonely she feels or you see her struggling with her pain, but unfortunately it doesn't really leads to anywhere.

I have to give Gaga credit for doing this. She had to know it was going to be one of those "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situations. People are going to take their biases and filter them into a film like this, regardless oh how this was shot or what was said.The main question I ask myself when I watch any program is, "Was that entertaining?" Yes, this certainly was! This film gives us a glimpse of Gaga's life when the cameras aren't usually rolling and we're introduced to her usual surroundings and the people in her inner-circle. Sometimes I'm guilty of thinking that rich and famous people have no cares in the world. This film serves as a reminder that this notion is the farthest thing from the truth. Money provides comfort but not happiness, and I think that's one of the takeaways for me here.A lot of reviewers are comparing this to Madonna's "Truth or Dare" which is a movie about the creation and fruition of the "Blond Ambition Tour" and focuses mainly on the difficulties of touring and life on the road with your dancers and staff. TOD does a great job of showing how you become a family unit for that period in time. Half the film is concert footage shown in black and white. Lady Gaga's "Five Foot Two" is not a concert film at all. It's more loosely-based on her life in general but chronicles the time frame from making her latest studio album to her preparation for the Super Bowl Halftime Show. It's mainly about her life, so I can see why some reviewers are saying she's a narcissist to the Nth degree; but to be fair, how can a film like this NOT seem narcissistic if it's about her life? I think nearly all celebrities of this caliber are the centers of their own universe. When you have the entire world judging your every step, maybe it's just the nature of the beast and done for self preservation...and maybe I'm being too kind?I also found it interesting that she brings up Madonna's dislike of her. You can tell it really bothers her. It would be difficult to not get the approval of the one artist you basically worship and molded your own career after. It would have been a good time for Gaga to directly address and put to rest the blatant piracy of Madonna's music and her culpability in the matter...no such luck!For the most part, I thought she came across as being very genuine. Certainly, some of the scenes were staged but this is done in almost every "reality" based TV show or documentary these days. She cries a lot. She seemed very vulnerable and insecure at times. I had remembered hearing that she had hip surgery but didn't realize how much pain she was in and how her body just completely shuts down at times. To me, this humanizes her. Calling her whiny really isn't appropriate, especially when it relates to a condition like this. I know that people say she's all about fame and money, but when she explained the title of her new album, Joanne, and that it was the name of her deceased aunt who had lupus; I mean, do you seriously think that was a money grab? Whatever has happened between the beginning of her career and now, she seems to be finding herself as an artist, is becoming more comfortable with herself and with opening up and not hiding behind all the crazy couture (which we all love, don't get me wrong).To be fair, this was a mere 100 minutes of her fast-paced rock star life. I wish there had been more of Sonja Durham in the film. I think it's terrible other reviewers have said Gaga made it seem that Sonja's cancer was all about her. Come on people, think! Gaga clearly loved her and only a few minutes in the film was dedicated to their friendship and working relationship. We have no idea what happened behind the scenes and what Gaga did for Sonja and her family. I would wager she did everything she could.I wasn't planning on writing a review on this film but I really enjoyed it, even though I'm not a huge Gaga fan. After I read many of the super-judgmental reviews, I felt compelled to counter-balance all the negativity. All I can say is, I'm so glad I'm not famous!

A reviewer above said this:"What I AM impressed with is how Gaga manages to talk about herself for the entire 2 hour duration, yet by the and of it you have learned absolutely nothing about her other than a vague fact about breaking her hip 3 years ago and that she's reinventing herself since she's decided the world is tired of seeing her being so glamorous. Seriously."This is 100% correct. Even when she's talking about how her 'best friend' is dying, her commentary is basically "Everyone keeps leaving me!" instead of "I feel so bad for my friend" or "I wonder how my friend's family is feeling" or even "I can't imagine how she must feel." (And afterwards I looked it up, and discovered that Gaga's 'eulogy' when her friend ultimately died was basically "When she died she took all the memories of my early career with her - poor me!")I guess you have to be pretty narcissistic and self-absorbed in order to be a pop megastar (otherwise how on earth would you have the drive or courage to get on a stage in front of 50,000 people?) but usually we can forgive this because the person is An Artist. The Gaga we see here isn't much of an artist: Her songs aren't musically or lyrically ground-breaking; she's not making some kind of political or social point or changing the world; her stage production is about the same as everyone else's (P!nk's Grammy performance was every bit as good - or better - than Gaga's much-hyped Superbowl show, for example). It was also staggering to see the record and production company people nodding and smiling at Gaga's ideas ("I need to do something different, you know?") as though they were pearls of wisdom, even though every junior marketing assistant could tell you that pop stars need to do 'something different' with each new album. These weren't exactly Deep Thoughts.This didn't make me hate Gaga - it just left me feeling that she was sort of all-around average and kind of boring. Which I think is probably worse.

I don't know much about GaGa but I know this. She is actually human. I may be an emotional girl at times but this was nice to watch & to see that life gets to everyone no matter how much money you have.Haters of GaGa are of course going to bag this but see it at face value. She shared some of her life with you to show that she has difficulties, ill health and also that she sometimes just needs to be appreciated and treated like number 1, c'mon don't we all want that sometimes.Well done GaGa you get my vote.