Sunday, February 19, 2012

Never Say I'm Not Open-Minded

Today I'm going to review the Justin Bieber documentary "Never Say Never." WHAT!?!... Perhaps some background is necessary. My first introduction to Mr. Bieber was on Saturday Night Live. I always enjoy SNL more when the musical guest is able to step out and join in the comedy skits. While that was entertaining, alone it was not enough to tempt me to watch the Bieber documentary. Frankly I'd never heard of it, and had no idea it even existed. Then along came this challenge from my friend Meg "I-call-her-Margaret" Beugg. So here we go...

With modest expectations and a bit of trepidation I sat down to watch "Never Say Never." While it's clear Justin Bieber is a talented kid, the style of music he performs is not one that is on my regular playlists. Watching NSN I learned that he seems to have legitimate and diverse musical talent. (Hey Justin, in the future I'd like to see a little more drumming, and a little less dancing.) He comes across as truly a nice young man. Clearly this is a carefully crafted product by Team Bieber. So of course he's going to be presented as a good guy. In fact, that's the main problem with Never Say Never. To be truly engaging a story has to have some conflict. With the exception of some concern whether his vocal cords would last for the big concert, (spoiler: they did), there was little tension in this movie. I would have been happy with a lot less time spent interviewing his drooling prepubescent female fans. But overall I was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience. I genuinely like the kid, and wish him well as he grows up. I'm already curious to see what he'll be up to in his mid-30s.

To wrap up this adventure I decided having made this time investment into Justin Bieber, I had to find at least one song to add to my iPod. This was tricky, because this movie did not magically change my musical preferences. After a Friday night spent listening to his stuff (while the wife was out), I've settled on "Baby" from 2010's "My Worlds Acoustic" album. So if you're riding in the car jamming out with me, and you're suddenly overwhelmed by Biebermania, now you'll know why.

I rate "Never Say Never" at 3 Boos.

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