A brain child of director Roger Ross Williams and actress Brooklyn Sudano (real daughter of the singer), this was supposed to be a genuine, warts and all portrait of a famous disco queen and the stark contrast between her public and private persona. If you ever had any passing interest in Summer - and she was, frankly, unavoidable at certain point, where her double albums were selling in millions and topping the charts - you are probably aware that she was uncomfortable with her sultry image and contrary to her success, could not wait to escape disco, embrace religion and strive to some imaginary validation, which unfortunately also means antagonising the very same audience that loved her and made her a world success. These are very known facts, often covered elsewhere and millions around the world are familiar with the story - therefore, a documentary might serve as a perfunctorily introduction to a new generation who has never heard of her and who might delve deeper in her recordings, but older fans know all of this. It seems this is what documentaries nowadays do, they rehash old stories and re-package them with some new scandalous twist, to make it more interesting. Next generations will refer to this documentary as a point of reference.
I kinda expected a storm in a teacup and this is exactly what it was. We go trough Summer's childhood, Germany, "Hair" musical, first scandalous disco hits, Giorgio Moroder, than singer's growing distaste for everything that her success represented - sexy image, hedonism, disco clubs, etc - and eventual insistence that she is not like that at all, rejection of the whole genre and its audience, vicious homophobic remarks and their denial (I don't believe the denial). Because I grew up with her music, I was very focused on this documentary but slowly it started to annoy me, I clearly saw it for what it is - an apology to her fans who supported her and were crushed when she turned openly against them. By creating a documentary where the main character is unhappy and haunted, its expected it would somehow make it easier to swallow. No, the documentary just makes her superficial and ungrateful for success she had.
Let's start with a daughter Brooklyn Sudano who is often shown rummaging trough her mother's scrapbooks, awards and LP covers as she is some kind of Indiana Jones who has now for the very first time discovered that her mother was a superstar. She is looking at these album covers like "oh wow, I didn't know she was so famous" - please. There is also a family, as expected a typical church going Boston family who was ashamed of her chart smashing hit single "Love to love you baby" and while this obviously bothered artist herself, the family quickly learned to enjoy her wealth and success. As expected, Summer often complains that she is not a sexpot at all, than there are stories about abusive partners, attempts at suicide, how unhappy she was all that time and we got the strange feeling that she rejects the very success that she strived for - leaving a divorce and a first daughter behind, where she could focus on career, than she moans about the career. The breaking point for me came when she complained that recording company dismissed her request to hold on with release of latest Streisand duet until her own "Dim all the lights" grows to number one - eventually the Streisand duet went to nr.1 and "Dim all the lights" was only number two. It was a huge year for Summer and having two singles on top of the charts was not something to ignore, however the documentary makes it sound as it was evil and greedy recording company that stabbed her in the back and did not listen to her wishes. In reality, a petulant stance from someone who obviously lost her compass.
Documentary somehow totally ignores everything that happened after 1970s - there is a skimpy mention of her turn to Christianity, a tearful press conference where she cries that she didn't mean to criticise her fans and some home footage showing her slowly withering away from cancer. 1980s and beyond simply didn't happen, neither many unsuccessful attempts at come back. They did mention her 1983 smash "She Works Hard For The Money" but mostly as a example how far her image had cleaned up and subsequently how less interesting she became. A disco queen who actually don't like disco, rejects her gay audience and wants to be known as a serious (& religious) artist is just not so appealing as a sparkling, exciting artist she once was. I will always love her early albums because I grew up with them but this documentary just left a sour taste in my mouth. I hope that future generations will not whitewash that Summer rejected the very audience that build her up.
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