Women being subjected to unattainable beauty standards, the quest to maintain a youthful body appearance, women's obsession with cosmetics and plastic surgery, eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia: all these subjects have been thoroughly explored a number of times, and examined under so many different angles.
While these subject matters are nonetheless still very relevant in an era of near cancerous social media obsession, this documentary, which honestly feels more like a bland video blog episode from a somewhat narcissistic Youtuber than an actual documentary, shoots in all directions without ever showing signs of a guiding thread. It ultimately results in a mishmash of barely thoughtful observations that we've all heard a billion times. Okay, the cosmetics industry makes billions of dollars every year. Okay, most women hate their bodies. Okay, a plethora of women feel doomed because they are aging. And yes, society dictates these things, and yes, it might be fundamentally wrong. But in 2014, people are more than aware of all that. These are not ground breaking facts by any means...now what?
Not only is the approach to the subject matter irrelevant, the lens through which it is delivered is beyond contradictory. Imagine if Charlton Heston was to be featured as the narrator in a documentary exploring the potential benefits of stricter gun laws in the U.S., or Lloyd Blankfein in a documentary tackling the issue of the lack of regulations on Wall Street. It sure felt quite ironic that the documentary would so clumsily send you its messages with a somewhat alarming tone but, on the other hand, feature what looks like cut-scenes taken from a video diary of the protagonist putting makeup on, doing duckfaces to the camera, jogging through the streets...always with perfect hair, makeup, and trendy designer clothing. Halfway between a victimization pattern and a desperate need of body image validation that was just as annoying as it was obvious. This felt more like an hour-long Instagram vignette aimed at promoting Lea Clermont-Dion and making her feel secure about herself than an actual documentary. Nothing against the individual, but this production is essentially a stinker.
Despite the above, the main issue lies in the absence of new perspective, fresh angle on the subject matters that it tackles, again appearing to be more focused on showing the protagonist making cute faces to the camera while the audience listens to the anecdotal narration than tackling underlying issues that would have injected fresh thinking into this thing: the impacts of social media on people's obsession with body image, the ever-blooming trend of plastic surgery and how accessible it has become, what toxic impacts this is going to have on millennials and subsequent generations, etc. No conclusions are drawn, no new thoughts infused.
Unfortunately, just a missed opportunity.