There were nights when the wind was so cold.

I Am: Celine Dion — 3/5

This is an interesting one. It's a great documentary subject because Celine Dion has no problem being incredibly vulnerable. She is herself, she is surrounded by a beautiful life and says things that are surprisingly sad, and we see an uncomfortable amount of her in the throes of her illness. But it also feels like it's missing some meat to build around her. And that meat may be "joy." It's not really about her life or her relations... which I mostly don't mind! Fuck a Wikipedia documentary! The documentary assumes we already know her, so it doesn't feel the need to explain her. But, I mean, I'd like a little bit more of the forces that created her, if only to get a sense of the joy it brought her life. I don't get the sense that her early life was filled with struggle, and maybe that creates the illusion that it's not interesting. But we need the build. She clearly loves who she is, but the movie's focus is on what she's losing: her voice, her bigness. It's less "I Am Celine Dion" and more "I Am No Longer Celine Dion." It's not a movie that builds up to an apex, and descends; it's all descent. And I think that fits the criticisms about her music. It's all bigness, but bigness isn't wholeness. We need the small things to build up to the bigness. And that's the thing about her—she can still sing, just not the degree that she could. I think as she gets older, as she separates what she is now capable of with the idea that people have in their head of her, I think she can still thrive. I don't think she yet realizes that you don't have to sing big to sing beautiful.