Commentary: 'Melania' isn't a documentary. It's a cynical and stupefying piece of political propaganda

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What’s the difference between Brett Ratner and Leni Riefenstahl? Riefenstahl, for all her many sins, was technically innovative; Ratner (unless you count an almost fetishistic fascination with first lady footwear), not so much.But in the end, they are both political propagandists, collaborators if you will, with heads of state determined to create a narrative that is, at best, at odds with reality and, at worst, a targeted attempt to distort it.Am I saying that “Melania” is as horrifically significant as “Triumph of the Will”? No, I am not.But it is motivated by the same base forces, and as fun as it might be to watch Jeff Bezos lose most of the $75 million Amazon paid for the purchase and then marketing of the film, it is important to remember that.As Melania Trump said herself at the film’s premiere: “Some have called this a documentary.

It is not.It is a creative experience that offers perspectives, insights and moments.”A “creative experience” for which the first lady, who serves as narrator and executive producer, reportedly received about $28 million.Money she very much does not earn.

Television At the first showing of “Melania” at the Grove cineplex, our reporter witnessed an unexpected surprise: A Melania Trump impersonator greeting the moviegoers in the auditorium.Anyone who goes into “Melania” hoping to see even a glimpse of what it is like to be first lady, or indeed Melania Trump, will find instead a super-long version of “we followed [fill in the blank] as they got ready for the Oscars.”Only in this case, it’s Donald Trump’s second inauguration, which Ratner (given his first big job since being accused by six women of sexual misconduct — Ratner denied the accusations) frames as the Second Coming, from the lingering shots of the sleek lines of the motorcade to the use of “His truth is marching on” from “Battle Hymn of t...