Madonna: Truth or Dare

A year in the life of Madonna at the height of her fame, touring Blonde Ambition through 1990. There’s concert footage, but the movie is also daringly truthful about the isolation of being surrounded by thousands of adoring fans at every turn, and about what Madge is really like behind the scenes. (Not that she is ever really off-stage.) In Toronto, the cops threaten to close down the show for indecency. Our girl faces them down. Kevin Costner puts in an infamous appearance. Boyfriend du jour Warren Beatty is around too. But the dancers are Madonna’s closest family.

I was charmed, entertained, and won over by most of it […] it’s the idea of stardom as orgasm more than the style or the content of the performances that constitutes the erotics. Madonna’s aim throughout appears to be to straddle the barrier that separates the merely show-offy from the outrageous without falling squarely on either side–which may help to explain why she and her gay dancers gleefully chant that they want this to be an X-rated movie.

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

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