Glitter (2001)

A young singer dates a disc jockey who helps her get into the music business, but their relationship become complicated as she ascends to super stardom.

Director:

Vondie Curtis-Hall (as Vondie Curtis Hall)

Writers:

Cheryl L. West (story), Kate Lanier (screenplay)

Stars:

Mariah Carey, Eric Benét, Max Beesley

Bottom Rated Movies #20 | 3 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mariah Carey	...	Billie Frank
Max Beesley	...	Julian Dice
Da Brat	...	Louise
Tia Texada	...	Roxanne
Valarie Pettiford	...	Lillian Frank
Ann Magnuson	...	Kelly
Terrence Howard	...	Timothy Walker
Dorian Harewood	...	Guy Richardson
Grant Nickalls	...	Jack Bridges
Eric Benét	...	Rafael
Padma Lakshmi	...	Sylk
Don Ackerman	...	Peter
Ed Sahely	...	Francois
Carmen Wong	...	Rose
James Allodi	...	Video Director

Storyline

Billie Frank is a shy, young multiracial girl who is sent away by her alcoholic mother at a very early age. At an orphanage, she befriends Louise and Roxanne. Flash forward to 1983. Billie and her friends are spotted by a record producer, Timothy Walker, who wants them to sing backup for his latest pop-music discovery. But when super DJ Julian Dice hears Billie's incredible voice, he makes a shady deal with Timothy to get her out of that dead-end situation. Soon, Billie and Dice are making hits inside the studio, and falling in love outside of it. Eventually, the pressure of her newfound celebrity puts too heavy a strain on Billie, forcing her to decide what it is she really wants from Dice, and what she wants for herself.

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Plot Keywords:

disc jockey | music business | cult film | one word title | female protagonist | 

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Taglines:

In music she found her dream, her love, herself

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Genres:

Drama | Music | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some sensuality, language and brief violence

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film and The Glass House (2001) were first major movie releases after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

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Goofs

When Billie is sitting at the keyboard, she puts a pad down, and lays a pen on top. The pen rotates between shots, note the direction which the nib faces.

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Quotes

Dice: I like hanging out wit you, Billie.

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Connections

Referenced in The Blockbuster Buster: Thunderbirds (2011)

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Soundtracks

All My Life
Written by Rick James
Produced by Mariah Carey and Rick James
Performed by Mariah Carey
Courtesy of Virgin Records America, Inc.

User Reviews

It's no wonder that even Carey herself considers 'Glitter' her biggest regret

Seeing 'Glitter' with an open mind, despite its notoriously awful reputation, it is not quite as horrendous to be down there with the worst films of all time, but the problems 'Glitter' has are plentiful and are significant enough to consider it a very bad film still.

The good news is that Mariah Carey does sound absolutely incredible, always have loved her voice with its beautiful tone, emotional connection and uniquely wide range. Also Terrence Howard is quite good and steals scenes.

However, Carey's enviable skills as a singer does not translate in her skills as an actress, it was really strange that an artist with such a huge vocal range (five octaves!) is the complete antithesis in her very one-note and often expressionless acting here, which is devoid of any joy, surprise, sincerity or emotion. The ability to connect emotionally with her songs also doesn't translate in the acting, she looks stiff and bored throughout here.

Unfortunately, the songs here do nothing for her vocal talents either. She sings them very well indeed, but there are far more memorable and emotionally powerful songs from her out there that also display her unique vocal gifts much more. They're not awful, just bland. The rest of the acting is also poor, with Max Beesley being equally lousy and not sounding sure what accent to pull off, while with the characters Carey's is shallow, one-dimensional and very difficult to relate to (which is a huge dividend considering the type of story it is) and the rest are annoying caricatures, a couple even irrelevant to the story.

Even for a film set in the 80s, 'Glitter' does much less than glitter and looks firmly stuck in the 80s. It looks gaudy and too much of the camera work is too gimmicky and amateurish. The structurally wafer-thin script, with clumsy attempts at being hip, embarrassingly unfunny humour and "poignant" moments that come over as emotionally manipulative, sounds even older than that and like an awkwardly written soap-opera rejected at first draft (and should have stayed there).

'Glitter' has very little story, it's very thin and aimless, and padded by the bland and uninspiredly choreographed songs shot like a series of out of date music videos and subplots that come out of nowhere and go very little further than that (i.e. the reappearance of the cat or the reunion with her mother). It starts tedious and loses even more drive as it plods on, and throughout like Carey's performance there's no joy, no emotion and no substance. The direction is decidedly inept.

Overall, not that horrendous but it is no wonder that Carey herself regrets being involved in this. 2/10 Bethany Cox

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 September 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

All That Glitters

Filming Locations:

World Trade Center, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$22,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,414,596, 23 September 2001

Gross USA:

$4,274,407

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$5,271,666

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Maroon Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS (8 channels) SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1