‘Melania’ Movie Roasted As ‘Propaganda’ By Critics In First Reviews
The Amazon-backed “Melania” documentary is getting torched by critics—who were barred from attending the Thursday night premiere screening—with some calling it propaganda and criticizing Melania Trump for touting herself as an immigrant while the Trump administration conducts immigration raids.
“Melania” opened in theaters worldwide Friday, following a premiere at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on Thursday night, which attracted guests including rapper Nicki Minaj and Trump administration officials.
The film has raised eyebrows for the huge sum of money Amazon spent on it, including $40 million for the rights and another $35 million to market and distribute the movie, prompting director Brett Ratner to deny allegations Amazon wanted to curry favor with the Trump administration.
Of the $40 million Amazon paid for the rights, Melania Trump reportedly pocketed more than 70% of that, or more than $28 million, the Wall Street Journal reported weeks after Amazon won the auction last February.
Despite the massive price tag, the film has a muted box office outlook with Deadline and Variety projecting as much as a $5 million opening weekend, almost certainly not enough to beat new release “Send Help” or 2025 holdover “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
In a one-star review, The Guardian critic Xan Brooks slammed “Melania” as a film that “doesn’t have a single redeeming quality,” comparing it to a “medieval tribute to placate the greedy king on his throne.” Brooks said the film offers few revelations about its subject, who “moves through the action like a listless automaton, talking constantly but saying nothing.” In another one-star review, The Independent critic Nick Hilton called the first lady a “scowling void of pure nothingness in this ghastly bit of propaganda.” He suggested the film is “part sop to Big Tech companies who require constant regulatory approval for financial manoeuvrings,” citing Amazon’s big investment in the movie and appearances by billionaires Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, who are included in footage of Trump’s inaugural celebrations. The Atlantic writer Sophie Gilbert called “Melania” a “disgrace,” criticizing Trump for profiting off the project while in office. Other critics said the documentary was aimless and that Trump appeared to be uncomfortable being filmed. Variety critic Daniel D’Addario said the documentary is “primarily a film about a woman walking into and out of rooms,” while Gilbert said Ratner “seems desperate to find action, but there is none, stating for much of the film, the camera captures Trump “walking from liminal place to liminal place in five-inch heels.”
Critics Slam “melania” Amid Ice Raids
Some critics called the expensive documentary’s release insensitive amid the Trump administration’s immigration raids, particularly because Melania Trump referenced being an immigrant both in the movie and at the Thursday night premiere. The Telegraph reported Trump “casts herself as immigrant underdog” in the movie, citing a scene in which she says: “The weight of history intertwined with my own journey as an immigrant ... is a reminder of why I respect this nation so deeply.” The Atlantic’s Gilbert wrote it is “galling” that the documentary was released to much fanfare by the Trump administration while its “militarized forces are killing Americans and detaining preschoolers,” likely referring to the recent killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents. D’Addario writes Trump says during the film, “In the end, no matter where we come from, we are bound by the same humanity,” and criticizes Ratner for failing to explore the “friction between these words and the ongoing refusal to acknowledge the humanity of immigrants and those who advocate for them.” The Independent’s Hilton criticized the same moment in the film, stating the documentary frames Trump as a “good” immigrant, “a far cry from the ones in cages, the ones tear gassed on the streets of Minneapolis, the ones festering in a jail cell in El Salvador.”
Tangent
“Melania” has been review-bombed online. On the film social networking platform Letterboxd, where users can rate movies on a scale of a half-star to five stars, thousands of users have given “Melania” a half-star rating, and the average stands at 1.2 stars. On Metacritic, a film review aggregator that also includes user reviews, “Melania” has an average rating of 0.4.
Key Background
“Melania” has garnered controversy ahead of its Friday release because of its massive price tag and its director, Ratner, whose career was derailed in 2017 after multiple women accused him of sexual assault, which he denied. Ratner also defended Amazon’s $75 million investment in the film at its Thursday premiere, stating the Amazon deal “wasn’t about corruption.” He called the backlash “silly because there’s a feature film and three episodes,” referring to an upcoming docuseries on Melania Trump that does not yet have a release date, and said the money helped hire a “top of the line” crew. But critics have questioned Amazon’s motives, including Ted Hope, a former Amazon film executive, who told the New York Times: “How can it not be equated with currying favor or an outright bribe? How can that not be the case?”
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