I am: Celine Dion, now streaming on Prime Video, finds the Canadian singing star in an extremely difficult and painful place, both in her life and her career. Dion announced her diagnosis with stiff person syndrome in 2022, and Am reveals the background of how that emotional statement came to his fans. “All I know is singing; It’s what I’ve done all my life. But my condition does not allow me to provide you with that at this time.” The doctor follows Dion as he processes his inability to perform, seeks ongoing treatment, and experiences sudden waves of crippling pain that prevents him from doing what he loves. But she’s going to fight. “I won’t stop. I won’t stop. The person I am today was not invented by myself. I didn’t create myself. Yo am” TO
I AM: CELINE DION: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The essence: “It’s in the muscle, it’s in the tendons, it’s in the nerves. Music” – and this is where Celine Dion breaks down and her tears take over – “I miss her so much.” I am: Celine Dion begins in 2021, after the singer and multiple Grammy Award winner was forced to cancel her Las Vegas concert residency due to the onset of a rare neurological disorder known as stiff person syndrome. Dion, who lives in Las Vegas with her twin sons Eddy and Nelson, is seen strolling around her spacious desert mansion. It’s not like she can go out on the town and have fancy dinners with her family and friends; her condition, along with her cancellations, means she can’t even leave the house. We see piles of medications and pill boxes in her bathroom (“One more pill, two more pills, too many pills”) and sessions at home with physical therapists and nurses. When Dion demonstrates what she sounds like when she tries to sing, what comes out of her is not a burst of the incredible vocal power that made her a star, but a harsh, strained sound. “I don’t want people to hear that,” she says through more tears.
I am: Celine Dion There is a music documentary that hangs a bunch of celebrity testimonials in a framework that combines biographical material with media appearances and performance sequences from the subject’s entire life. There’s no narration or cuts to the talking heads interviews, except those with Dion herself, who is surprisingly candid throughout. Instead, Am features numerous montages of shows from across her career — a big voice for big hits like “Power of Love” and “My Heart Will Go On,” now being compared to Dion — as she works to build strength. and exceed the SPS. The cameras also capture an acute medical emergency. Spasming and unable to speak, the paramedics treating Dion must carefully roll her unconscious body onto a waiting stretcher.
But there is also hope here and an appreciation of glamour. Before his legs get too tired, Dion tours a private warehouse that stores customized stage clothes for his entire career, designer dresses from red carpet appearances, and even mementos and relics from when his children were little ones. A later montage captures her good times with her husband, “the love of my life,” René Angélil, who died in 2016. And when she makes some progress vocally, she sings the opening lines of the title over and over again. . song for Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s 2023 romance Love again, those responsible respond with encouraging smiles. “We haven’t heard this for a couple of years; For us it is like music.”
What movies will it remind you of? Joan Baez: I am a noise followed the veteran singer-songwriter and maintained her three-octave range and finger-playing guitar before a celebratory tour. AND
Performance worth seeing: Celine Dion is basically in every shot Am, and often while completely removed from the spotlight: in her pajamas, responding to the pain she feels, performing grueling stretching exercises instead of singing in front of thousands of people. It’s eye-opening, to say the least.
Memorable dialogue: The long chronology of Dion’s condition is astonishing. “17 years ago, I began experiencing voice spasms. That’s how it all started and it scared me. Because normally, when you’re tired as a singer, because you did a show the night before, your voice would drop about half a note or a note. Suddenly, her voice was rising and she was losing her cool. ability to control it.
Sex and skin: None.
Our opinion: It’s surprising when I am: Celine Dion cuts between clips of her effortlessly singing an absolutely massive power ballad on stage and struggling while hoarse to hit even a clean note. This is what the rigid person syndrome has stolen from her, and beyond the very real threats to her well-being, she speaks of it as a professional humiliation. It is her own body that fails the professional expectations of her collaborators, and that bothers her greatly. “High marks and whatever,” he tells the intimate camera in front of her, summing up her talent. “Celine Dion, she is the best.” But the phrase fades away, replaced by what appears to be a typical cocktail of anger, sadness and frustration. “What’s going to happen?” Dion asks her physical therapist later, after a particularly frightening flare-up of her condition. If stimulating your brain’s pleasure centers (you know, what you love and what you do for a living, all that singing and acting) if the result of that is your body going into shutdown mode, how do you do that? Will you sing for your fans again? It’s quite heartbreaking and Am Admirably, powerfully, she doesn’t shy away from Celine Dion’s emotion as she processes each latest setback.
Some of the material included here isn’t as effective, like an eccentric appearance by Fallon in 2018 that feels out of place, or an extended visit to the film’s vocal editing room. Love again. But despite the near-constant presence of her condition, Dion herself is indefatigable and every now and then she throws in a quick sketch of her legendary vocal style. Her ability to sing at a high level may have been stolen from her. But I am: Celine Dion does well to balance her journey to recovery with moments that highlight who she is as a person, not just a rigid person.
Our call: TRANSMIT IT. Imagine making your entire life, your entire livelihood, from the love of singing and acting. Now imagine that ability being physically taken away from you. I am: Celine Dion He hangs out with the singer during all the unvarnished moments, as she works to manage her condition and fights to find a way to get healthy and sing again.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is a freelance writer and editor living in Chicago. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.AA