The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" starts blasting through the movie theater speakers as a shot of the first lady's heels rhythmically clicking across Mar-a-Lago plays on the big screen. The highly advertised and under-anticipated documentary "Melania" explores first lady Melania Trump's 20 days before her husband's second inauguration.
As a journalist, I went into this movie with almost no preconceived notions — except that I was extremely curious about what the documentary would entail. What I interpreted from the film was different than what most movie reviewers did.
A review from The Guardian gave the film zero stars, and another from Vanity Fair called it "a work of propaganda."
However, the details I noticed were more about how Melania has a majority female staff – from her Secret Service agents to her White House cabinet – and how she humors her husband's nonsense or exaggerated comments.
Despite the deep controversy surrounding the film, the director and frankly, the man who helped make the film's plot possible, I enjoyed basking in the featured fashion and how she plays her role as first lady of the United States.
NBC News reported that the top-performing markets for the movie were, guess what: Phoenix, and some major cities in Florida and Texas – all in states the president won in the 2024 election.
They also reported that female moviegoers made up about 70% of the audience. This was reflected in the theater where I watched the film — women were the majority in a group of a little over a dozen patrons.
Throughout the 20 days of the movie, viewers see Melania make decisions on what decorations would be put up and the kind of food that would be served at the inaugural ball. It also shows her nitpicking details of the garments she was planning to wear on inauguration day and flying across the country to attend events.
The scenes where Melania was with her husband ended up revealing some of her true feelings. She, too, found his extremisms a little far-fetched and was not afraid to take credit for the help she provided her husband with his speech.
"A peacemaker and unifier," she suggested he add to the sentence in his inaugural speech.
What felt weird about the movie was seeing big names like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg making appearances while looking more like mere movie extras than billionaires attending a fancy dinner.
Amazon's Founder and Executive Chair Jeff Bezos also made a cameo in the film, coincidentally when Melania explained it was financial donations that helped elect her husband to a second term. Bezos also has major financial ties to the documentary's production.
The film did not fail to take the opportunity to make a jab at the previous administration, panning backstage to Kamala Harris and Joe Biden right before the inauguration, where I saw how done Harris was with Biden, and how strung out Biden had been by then.
A moment when the calm, reserved facade that Melania always presents seemed to fade was when director Brett Ratner was encouraging Melania to sing along to her favorite song – "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson.
There aren't many moments where we get to see the first lady show so many other emotions, but the documentary showed a glimpse behind the broad-brimmed hat and stone-cold stare.
I genuinely enjoyed the film as a whole, the fashion, the glamor and political intensity surrounding those specific 20 days, but it wasn't anything more than that. Without the proper storytelling structure of a conflict and resolution, it is simply not going to catch and keep the attention of viewers, other than fans of the first lady.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Editor's note: The opinions presented in this review are the author's and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
Edited by Kasturi Tale, Henry Smardo and Pippa Fung.
Reach the reporter at elbradfo@asu.edu and follow @emmalbradford__ on X.
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Emma Bradford is a junior studying journalism and mass communication and political science with a minor in business. She has previously worked at the Cronkite News Washington, D.C. bureau as a Politics and Money Reporter. Bradford is in her fourth semester with The State Press and on the politics desk.
