Vondie Curtis-Hall’s stinking 2001 musical film “Glitter” is pretty notorious, often considered one of the worst films of its decade. The film starred superstar singer Mariah Carey and was the result of years of development. The project began in 1997, when Carey toyed with the idea of a period musical/concept album called “All That Glitters.” Unfortunately, various contractual obligations with Columbia Records prevented her from working properly on the album, and she ended up using some songs from another album, “Rainbows”. When she joined a new label, Carey was finally able to give the project the attention it deserved.
Carey came up with a simple story – a club dancer becomes a star singer – and hired screenwriter Kate Lanier to script it. The film was set in 1983 and was intended to be an insightful character drama about a young woman’s struggles to reconcile her feelings toward her mother, who abandoned her. The character, named Billie, would use her music to fight against her maternal abandonment.
On paper, everything seemed to fall into place. Carey was (and still is) one of the best-selling musical artists of all time, so the move to feature films seemed natural, especially if it was to be accompanied by a new Mariah Carey album. Carey renamed the album/film “Glitter” and set a release date for fall 2001. It was a very personal passion project for the artist, and she was very protective of it. Once the movie/album comes out, she could finally relax.
However, it all came crashing down when audiences finally saw “Glitter.” The movie was certainly terrible. It was savagely criticized, nominated for six Razzies, and bombed horribly at the box office.
What happened with Glitter?
Conceptually, everything should have worked, right? It turns out the film was plagued with production issues. Notably, no one liked the script and it was constantly rewritten throughout filming. Sometimes dialogue scenes were abandoned altogether and replaced with mournful improvisation. As a result, “Glitter” feels inconsistent from scene to scene. Sure, you can easily follow the story, but every moment feels loose and chaotic.
It didn’t help that Carey’s promotional tour was just as chaotic. Some may remember Carey’s 2001 appearance on “Total Request Live,” in which she disconcertingly handed out ice, talked ramblingly about the nature of psychotherapy and stripped down to her ice cream vendor outfit to reveal a tank top and gold shorts. Host Caron Daly was taken aback by her appearance. This was followed by several other bizarre live appearances during which Carey appeared nervous and anxious. She was eventually hospitalized for “exhaustion” and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It was just a few weeks before the release of “Glitter.” Both the film and album were pushed back to September 21, 2001.
However, in terrible timing, “Glitter” was released just 10 days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the world was quite distracted. No one was in the mood for a featherweight musical about Mariah Carey’s struggles. With a budget of $22 million, “Glitter” only earned about $2.4 million in its opening weekend. The film closed about a month later, having grossed only $5.3 million total. This remains the least profitable project of Carey’s career. And even the companion album “Glitter” didn’t do well.
Everyone hated Glitter
“Glitter” was considered a farcical piece by an already wealthy celebrity who seemed to have issues unrelated to the content of his record. Add the September 11 attacks to the mix, and the picture isn’t pretty.
The reviews were pretty nasty towards “Glitter”. As noted in the title of this article, the film only has a 6% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 86 reviews. Christy Lemire, writing for the Associated Press, noted that Carey was not an actress and should stick to singing. Megan Rosenfield of The Washington Post commented that “Glitter” was not so much a showcase for Carey’s musical talents as it was an excuse for her to show off her body and look stunning on camera. Roger Ebert gave it a negative review, but he was slightly more fair, giving the film two stars. He noted that “Glitter” is oddly dour and that Carey’s character Billie was having a miserable time throughout the film. Robert Koehler of Variety said it should be called “A Star is Dull”. (Come on, Koehler, “A Star is Boring” was right there!)
“Glitter” immediately found itself at the bottom of lists of the worst songs of the year. Years later, some critics pointed out that the destruction of “Glitter” was part of an unfortunate misogynistic trend aimed at tearing down women – supermarket tabloids style – at the center of the pop firmament. Similar savagery has been committed against people like Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton.
“Glitter” still isn’t good. As mentioned, it’s chaotic, poorly filmed, and has a nonsensical story. Carey is okay, but not amazing in the acting department. She gets her revenge every Christmas when “All I Want for Christmas Is You” plays constantly, and she provided a voice in “The LEGO Batman Movie,” so it all worked out.
