‘Melania’ Producer Admits Inconvenient Truth About Its Reviews
Marc Beckman explained why fans and critics disagree so much on the first lady’s documentary.
Variety via Getty Images
The marketing agent behind a critically panned documentary about Melania Trump has admitted that anyone who saw the movie and had anything nice to say about it was already a Trump fan.
“This isn’t a political, policy-oriented message. It’s just a nice story about this woman and her family and philanthropy and business, historically for our country,” Marc Beckman, who produced Melania, told Variety.
“So we actually really wanted it to go to everyone,” he went on. “But obviously the fans go first, right?”
Everyone's a critic when Melania Trump releases a movie.
LA Metro
Beckman, who has advised Melania Trump for some 20 years, added that it’s “OK” that most of the people who went to see the film in cinemas were already MAGA supporters.
“That makes sense; it’s just like a majority of the people that would go to see a Spider-Man movie in the beginning would be fans of Spider-Man,” he said. “We expected the fans to come out first, so it’s nice that they approve.”
The film, which chronicles the 20 days leading up to Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration, was bankrolled by Amazon in a $40 million deal struck directly by its Trump-friendly billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos.
Marc Beckman, right, pictured with the controversial director of “Melania,” Brett Ratner.
Variety via Getty Images
It was directed by Brett Ratner, whose Hollywood career was derailed after the success of the Rush Hour franchise by multiple accusations of sexual assault and who, like President Trump, appears in the recent batch of Jeffrey Epstein case files released by the Department of Justice.
Like the first lady's husband, her movie's director, Brett Ratner, pictured right, had ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Department of Justice
The film currently has a critics’ score of just 11 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
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Reviews have described it as “a cheeseball of staggering inertia,” a “ghastly bit of propaganda,” “narcolepsy-inducing,” and “two hours of endless hell.”
Critics have also used words like “vapid,” “lifeless,” “exhausting,” “pointless,” “hollow,” “patinated,” “empty,” “flat,” “insipid,” and “shameless.”
The first lady’s fans have tried to counter those attacks, with the movie’s audience score on the review aggregator site currently standing at 98 percent.
In his sprawling Monday interview with Variety, Beckman leant his support to those efforts, telling the publication that critics don’t know what they’re talking about anyway.
The Melania Trump movie grossed $7 million on its opening weekend, although posters for the film were often defaced.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
“What really is a critic’s job today? It’s worse than bias,” he said. “It’s like they’re voting, with political ideology first. There were some critiques I read that didn’t even talk about the film; they only spoke about President Trump.”
He further described the documentary’s savage critical reception as “just unfortunately where we are today in society.”
“It would be better for us all if we can get back to being sensible,” he added. “And this huge disparity that you’re talking about—I did read that it’s the biggest ever in history—is just a sign of the times.”
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