Britney Ever After (2017) and the Rise and Fall Story of Britney Spears

Every few years, a movie will come out that has an almost identical story to another movie, down to weird minor story details.  The big difference is that the setting has been changed.  Take Magic Mike, for example.  That movie about male dancers had a lot of the same beats as the 1970s Burt Reynolds movie Hooper.  The title characters were ready to leave their entertainment business when a new star, known as The Kid, came in to take their place.  Or you could go with Real Steel, which was a futuristic update on Over the Top.  A father became the guardian of the son he never knew and they bonded while driving around in a transport truck on the way to the dad’s sporting event.

One of the more recent examples was when Jem and the Holograms took beats from Josie and the Pussycats.  I already wrote about that one, though.  This time, I’m writing about a 2017 release called Britney Ever After.  It told the story of Britney Spears (Natasha Bassett) as she rose to fame, before having a mental breakdown.  It was a classic case of rise and fall before slowly rising again.  Sort of like a phoenix.  She had a relationship with Justin Timberlake (Nathan Keyes).  Then she had a relationship with Kevin Federline (Clayton Chitty).  Then she had a troubled time where a man named Sam Lutfi (Benjamin Arcé) swooped in and tried to take control of her.  It was a lot to cover in the hour and a half that Lifetime gave it.

Britney Ever After might not seem like it took directly from any movie.  My comparison here won’t be as direct as the Real Steel or Magic Mike examples.  It will, however, work in the same way as the post that was written for Jem and the Holograms.  That’s because the comparison might not be based on specific beats.  It is instead based on an overall story arc.  The story comes from a movie called Boogie Nights.  Britney’s arc throughout Britney Ever After can be seen as a translation of the story arc for Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg) in Boogie Nights.

Dirk Diggler’s tale begins a little earlier in his story than Britney’s does.  He had to be discovered at the beginning of Boogie Nights.  Britney Spears, however, had already been found.  She was on her way to stardom.  Thus, we must begin by comparing their initial push to stardom.  We must begin at that first performance that put the characters into the stratosphere of the most famous people in their field.

Britney Ever After began Britney’s rise to fame at a concert where she opened for *NSYNC.  Though she had already found success with her song …Baby One More Time, it would be this concert that would turn her into one of the best performers of all time.  The movie began at this point because it was about what fame can do to a person, and you need the beginning of the fame in order to tell that story.  It is also important to note who that first concert was with since that would become a major part of what happened later on.

Compare this to Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights.  He had shown his penis to a few people prior to his introduction into the porn industry.  He was making money from it.  But it wouldn’t be until his first scene with Amber Waves (Julianne Moore) that he would be propelled into stardom.  This would get him the success that he needed to move into the next stage of his career, which would be the Brock Landers series of movies.  That’s not as important, though.  What is important is again that this single performance not only propelled him into fame, but sent him down another path in his life thanks to who he was with.

With fame comes addiction, and both movies covered addiction while following their main characters.  Britney Ever After brought addiction into the story through Justin Timberlake.  Remember when I said that *NSYNC would be coming up again later?  Mr. Timberlake was a member of *NSYNC who Britney Spears had known as a child thanks to their work in The Mickey Mouse Club.  This relationship would be something that dug at Britney throughout the remainder of the movie.  Characters mentioned at one point that Britney was addicted to love.  What she had with Justin, she thought was love.  And based on what was in Britney Ever After, it may have been.  When the two of them broke up, she quickly tried to fill the void of not having love.  She was married to a childhood friend named Jason Alexander (Kelly McCabe) and had it annulled two days later.  She quickly began a relationship with Kevin Federline.  Her whole life outside of music was about finding love, and her downfall would be her unsuccessful search to fill the void of not having any.

The addiction in Boogie Nights was simpler.  It was drugs.  Dirk Diggler was addicted to drugs.  That’s a story that ends up all over show business.  How many famous people have ended up in rehab because of drugs?  Hell, a couple people I know who aren’t famous ended up in rehab because of drugs.  It happens.  Addiction is a problem.  It was a problem with Dirk Diggler and led to his downfall from stardom.  But let’s go back to where it started.  One of the major moments was when Amber Waves, who he performed his first scene with, took him to her bedroom during a party and gave him some cocaine.  Much like Britney Ever After, the initial addiction began with the person who was involved in the first performance.

The narrative of Britney Ever After was broken up by a documentary about Britney Spears that was being filmed after her return to fame.  The movie began with the documentary, ended with the documentary, and had the documentary as bumpers around almost every commercial break.  The documentary was telling the story that was being shown.  It was a way to go into and out of every moment in the story without having it flow as fluidly as it could have with a straight narrative.  There could be time jumps because the documentary was only focusing on the important moments.

Boogie Nights also featured a documentary, though in a different way.  About halfway through the film, when it was transitioning from the rise to the fall of Dirk Diggler, Amber Waves made a documentary about Dirk.  It chronicled his rise to fame and gave reasons about why he was on top.  There wasn’t much in common with the Britney Spears documentary in Britney Ever After, but it feels important to note that both characters became famous enough to have documentaries made about them.

Moving into the downfalls of both characters, there was another character in each film who became increasingly controlling of the lead’s life.  Britney Ever After featured Sam Lutfi.  He came into Britney’s life soon after her breakup with Kevin Federline, and her subsequent breakdown.  She met him at a party and he just kind of stuck around, placing himself as her manager.  He kept her isolated in her Los Angeles home.  Her family was kept away.  He was trying to keep her to herself, possibly to take control of her earnings.  He was ousted by Britney’s family with a restraining order, thus being removed from her life, and allowing her to have a happy ending.

Todd Parker (Thomas Jane) was introduced about halfway through Boogie Nights, at one of the many parties.  He was a friend of Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly).  When Dirk left the porn business, he was fully addicted to drugs.  Todd was enabling this habit.  He was the one always bringing the drugs to Dirk.  His sole desire was money and drugs, which is not the same as trying to take everything from Dirk.  However, he was still a major force in Dirk’s life.  Dirk depended on him for drugs the same way that Britney was depending on Sam to live her life.  Todd was removed from Dirk’s life near the end of the movie, leading to Dirk’s sort of redemption.  When a drug deal went wrong, Todd was shot and killed.  Dirk was no longer under his control.  He was no longer dependent upon Todd.

The final major piece of the story was the redemption aspect.  After her breakdown and the controlling force of Sam Lutfi, Britney’s parents stepped in and got her out.  She was able to get her life back and do what she did best to the best of her abilities.  She released the acclaimed album Circus and worked on the documentary about her struggles.  Things seemed to be looking up for Britney as the movie ended.

Dirk Diggler got his own bit of redemption at the end of Boogie Nights, after he saw Todd get killed.  He realized how bad the world of drugs was, and turned back to his old family, led by director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds).  They let Dirk back into the industry with open arms and things looked like they were finally getting back on track for him.

As you can see, there were a few major story moments that shared similarities between the two movies, though they were covering different topics.  Britney Spears and Dirk Diggler were two vastly different characters who were experiencing similar stories through different circumstances.  There were a few minor similarities in there as well.  There were dance scenes in the middle of each movie to show off the dancing skills of the main characters.  Dirk’s dance scene was at a disco club as everyone danced together.  Britney’s dance scene was at a nightclub as she danced against Justin Timberlake in a battle of “I’m doing better after the relationship than you.”  Their performances were shown throughout the movie.  All that said, Boogie Nights told the story much better than Britney Ever After.

There were many stumbles in Britney Ever After.  First and foremost was the acting.  It may have been intentionally bad.  Lifetime is known for its over-the-top melodrama, and that’s what this was.  The acting was heightened to the point of weakening the performances.  Second to the acting was the fact that the performances consisted solely of Britney performing other people’s songs.  She had actually performed those songs live, but it would have been nice to hear some of her actual music featured in the movie.  It felt wrong to have a Britney Spears movie without Britney Spears songs.

The issue I want to dig a little into, however, was the story structure.  The use of the documentary to bring everything together was a nice touch.  The problem was that the story dragged out at times and felt condensed at others.  The Justin Timberlake section took up about half of the runtime, which made everything after it (the two other major sections of her life that were depicted) seem like it didn’t get enough focus.  And, although his presence is based on real life, Sam Lutfi felt like one obstacle too many.  The story was about Britney’s addiction to love and how she had been messed up due to breaking up with Justin Timberlake.  It would have been enough to simply show her mental struggle through the Federline relationship and what followed.  There was no need to have the overbearing Lutfi brought in.  He wasn’t a relationship.  He was just there, pushing her around.  That whole section felt like a different story to be told in a different movie.  It was based on real events though, so it’s hard to tell them to remove that part of her life.

Britney Ever After was not a good movie.  But it shared similarities with Boogie Nights, which told the same kind of story in a much better way.  The guiding hand of Paul Thomas Anderson shaped a story about a group of characters going through various issues in the porn industry.  Though Dirk was the primary character, there were other stories that built with his.  Not having all of the focus on his character allowed the story to breathe.  The added hour of runtime made it so that nothing felt rushed.  The acting was better, the direction was better, and the story was better.

Stories of characters who rise to fame only to fall hard are spread throughout entertainment.  It’s one of the main story structures when presenting a tale of celebrities.  Boogie Nights and Britney Ever After shared that structure, with Britney Ever After bungling it at almost every turn.  There was a decent enough attempt at trying to find a story to tell with Britney Spears.  The execution of that story was the problem.  When someone else eventually tells this story in a way that doesn’t have the limitations of the Lifetime television channel, it could turn into something great.  Until then, we’ll always have Boogie Nights for an example of how Britney Ever After could have turned out.

Let’s get some notes in here to finish this post off:

• I mentioned Jem and the Holograms in the post.
• Mark Wahlberg was brought up during the post.  He was in The Happening.
  
• Britney Ever After was suggested by @erincandy, who has suggested many movies for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  She previously suggested Glitter, Ghost Storm, Zombeavers, Dead Before Dawn 3-D, Bigfoot vs. Zombies, and Jem and the Holograms.
• Since there are no actors or directors who were featured in other Sunday “Bad” Movies, I’m just going to link off to some other movies that have musician characters.  Miami Connection.  NewYear’s Eve.  Howard the Duck.  The Apple.  Xanadu.  Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.  Sandy Wexler.  The Parking Lot Movie.
• I should probably also link to some Lifetime movies.  A Nanny for Christmas.  The Craigslist Killer.  The Christmas Consultant.
• Have you seen Britney Ever After?  What did you think of that biopic?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
• The comments are also a place where you can let me know what movies I should be checking out for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  This week’s movie was a suggestion and look how that post turned out.  If the comments aren’t your thing, let me know on Twitter.  I want suggestions.
• Maybe you should check me out on snapchat (jurassicgriffin).  When I watch bad movies, I sometimes put clips of them up.  Or clips of other stuff.  Or pictures.  Who knows what I do with my snapchat story?
• Now that I’ve revisited Lifetime by watching this terrible music biopic, I’m going to be revisiting another source of movies I go to for this blog.  Troma is back.  Next week, I’ll be watching Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D., a movie about a crime-fighting superhero in New York City.  It was a fun enough movie, and I’m excited to share whatever thoughts I have about it with you guys.  Until then, bye bye.