This Is Me… Now is the most J. Lo thing J. Lo’s ever done

The bonkers, star-studded musical-biopic-fantasia-mess proves Jennifer Lopez can do whatever she wants.

Throughout her career but particularly over the last decade, Jennifer Lopez has earned the title of one of the busiest people in the entertainment industry. From performing at the Super Bowl halftime show to churning out rom-com after rom-com to repurposing “Let’s Get Loud” at a presidential inauguration and headlining a Las Vegas residency, the multihyphenate is truly everything everywhere.

It only makes sense that she would tax herself with a superfluous three-part project revamping one of her highest-performing albums, 2002’s This Is Me… Then — not even during its anniversary, by the way — all of which essentially serves to emphasize her persisting dominance in pop culture. (And oh yeah, her current state of bliss with her husband, Ben Affleck.)

The first part of this trifecta, which includes a forthcoming documentary and a new album out today, is the Prime Video movie This Is Me… Now: A Love Story. The trippy musical isn’t the sort of high-brow, experimental venture one might expect from a pop star of Lopez’s caliber (think more like a wacky Marvel film than Beyoncé’s Lemonade). If anything, This Is Me… Now is a confirmation of the singer/actress’s elite showmanship and her ability to bounce back as a cultural figure and chronic divorcée. It’s exactly the sort of galaxy-brained project one makes when one has nothing to prove and $20 million to spend — and one is high on love.

This Is Me… Now is a messy, green-screen fantasia — but to what end?

From the moment the movie trailer dropped on social media, This Is Me… Now seemed primed for jokes about Lopez’s theater-kid-level earnestness and whatever Oscar-winner Ben Affleck planned on doing in the film. (He’s almost unrecognizable as a rambunctious news anchor, in addition to a few other cameos.)

On one hand, it is obvious meme material. We’re talking about Lopez here, who has largely opted for maximalism over subtlety as a performer. (This is a woman who inserted a pole-dancing routine from her role in Hustlers into a Super Bowl halftime show, after all.) And as the star of a slew of romantic comedies (Maid in Manhattan, The Wedding Planner, Second Act, Marry Me), she’s no stranger to reveling in cheesiness.

That being said, the semi-autobiographical movie relies a lot on big metaphors and unsubtle imagery. For example, in a dream sequence, Lopez’s heart is represented by a giant, combustible apparatus operated by dancing factory workers and fueled by rose petals. But it somehow feels right from the brain of such an iconic Leo, known for wearing her heart on her sleeve.

The hour-long movie opens with Lopez reciting the Puerto Rican myth of Alida and Taroo, two star-crossed lovers from rival tribes. After Alida’s father forbids their romance, Alida prays to the gods for help, who then turn her into a red flower. When Taroo asks the gods to help him find Alida, he is transformed into a hummingbird, leading him on a continual search for his one true love. If you’re fluent in the history of Bennifer and all the tabloid scrutiny that followed the first round of their relationship, you’ll see where all this allegory is going.

But before Lopez can reunite with her Prince Charming, we’re taken on a fantastical musical odyssey through her tumultuous, star-studded romantic history. Directed by notable music video director Dave Meyers, the film is admittedly reminiscent of some of his later, less visually appealing work — from the overly glossy, video-game-like sheen to the depressingly gray-and-amber Zack Snyder look of the film. The constantly rotating, borderline nauseating camera angles brought to mind his unfortunate collaborations with Ariana Grande.

Courtesy of Prime Video

In slightly more grounded moments— if you could describe any part of this film as grounded — Lopez is able to overcome a vexing amount of green screen to convey something real and exciting. In one particularly fun number where she reimagines her three ill-fated marriages, she adds new life to the otherwise middling single “Can’t Get Enough.” In arguably the movie’s most powerful scene, she makes amends with her younger self for putting men before her personal happiness. This is also where she performs the title track “This Is Me… Now,” a standout on an album that doesn’t seem to be brimming with hits.

Of course, Lopez’s penchant for astrology is included throughout the film. One of the funniest and most enjoyable aspects is the Zodiac Love Council, who struggle to match Lopez with her one true love. The astrological gods are played by a random but somehow pitch-perfect ensemble of celebrities including Lopez’s Monster-In-Law co-star Jane Fonda, rapper-singer Post Malone, actress Sofia Vergara, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, America’s sweetheart Keke Palmer, comedian Trevor Noah, screen legend Jennifer Lewis, and hyper-pop singer Kim Petras.

Oddly enough, these supporting characters have more chemistry than you might expect and are as committed to the bit as Lopez is — and really, isn’t commitment the most you can ask for from an overstuffed vanity project?

The movie isn’t as confessional as you may think

This Is Me… Now is more disorienting than revelatory. The fast-paced, CGI-on-steroids element feels like a purposeful distraction from the fact that viewers will not learn anything about Lopez’s love life and psyche that she hasn’t been open about before. If you haven’t noticed, she and Affleck have been extremely public about their rekindling. Since reuniting in April 2021, the two have posed on numerous red carpets together, gushed over each other in interviews, starred in Dunkin’ commercials, and even recreated a moment from the “Jenny From the Block” music video on a yacht for paparazzi.

The therapy scenes between Lopez and fellow Bronxite Fat Joe are almost entirely played for laughs, revealing nothing novel, despite a perfect opportunity in the film for deeper introspection. Plus, the narrative explored in This Is Me… Now feels similar to many of her albums exploring her mishaps in love, including Love?, her 2011 comeback album.

In her 2014 memoir True Love, she takes readers on the same self-love journey, investigating her regrettable approaches to her past relationships and what she describes as a tendency to mistake passion for genuine love. Even a striking sequence in the film where Lopez dances with a volatile partner inside a glass house isn’t particularly shocking, given that in her book, she writes about being “mentally, emotionally, verbally” abused by an unnamed ex.

A raw, more transparent piece of art would likely confront the public’s treatment of her love life, given that the media’s ridicule and other external pressures, according to Lopez, were such a huge part of her and Affleck’s initial estrangement. It could at least include a few fun, lighthearted Easter eggs. Perhaps she’s saving more personal anecdotes for her documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, out February 27, but This Is Me… Now seems like a prime vehicle for some juicy details about her past.

This Is Me… Now is more about J. Lo’s power as a celebrity than an artist

It’s a bit ironic that the thing Lopez’s character overcomes in this film — a need for external validation — is what seems to be driving its existence. It’s hard not to view the movie within the larger context of Hollywood failing to take her seriously as an actress, despite being one of the most bankable movie stars and turning over some genuinely good performances throughout her career.

For example, Lopez has been open about the disappointment that was her failed Oscars campaign for the 2019 movie Hustlers, even capturing her tears during nominations morning in her Netflix documentary Jennifer Lopez: Halftime. While the actress earned other big awards nominations that year, including for the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Golden Globes — she already has a Golden Globe nomination for the 1997 film Selena — the Hollywood establishment seems hesitant to see her as much more than a commercial star. Such treatment has presumably caused her to feel like an “outsider” in Hollywood.

Regardless, it’s hard to point to a moment in time since her breakthrough in the late ‘90s when Lopez’s name has not been in the public conversation, whether for her personal life or professional ventures.

Even initially questionable film and television roles, like starring in the NBC cop show Shades of Blue or lending her voice to the Ice Age franchise, now feel like necessary stepping stones in her trajectory. For instance, despite having a spotty, often poorly reviewed filmography, her choices in projects — particularly rom-coms and two-handers — have at least contributed to her specific brand as a movie star. Fans know what to expect from a classic J. Lo movie. It’s why she can star in a chaotic, objectively bad rom-com, like 2022’s Shotgun Wedding, without any expectations beyond being generally entertaining and delivering nostalgia.

The same resilience and ingenuity can be seen in her bumpy music career, which saw a downturn in 2007 following the release of her Spanish-language album Como Ama una Mujer and her return-to-pop-R&B album Brave. Her decision to judge American Idol in 2011 — a surprising gig for a pop star at her level of fame — gave her a platform to regain the country’s interest as well as advertise new music. Plus, her Las Vegas residency, All I Have, from 2016 to 2018 would also set the stage for a revival of her musical catalog.

All in all, Lopez’s career has demonstrated reinvention and, more importantly, redemption that not many can emulate. Her determination is, of course, the result of a celebrity culture that enjoys building women up until they’re deemed past their prime. For women of color, this cycle can be more brutal. Nevertheless, it’s historically resulted in some of our most fascinating divas and pop cultural stories.

This Is Me… Now is a statement of Lopez’s cultural resilience, if not just her ability to rebound from a bad relationship and find herself in another attention-grabbing power couple. She’s the kind of celebrity who can make sense out of any creative decision, including funding a self-important long-form music video based on her therapy sessions. There’s a level of shamelessness (and megalomania) required in crafting a movie like this, but it’s the sort of unabashed confidence that makes our celebrity ecosystem go round.