One thing the Melania documentary is not is a documentary, at least in the traditional journalistic understanding of the genre. There is no backstory, no interviews with friends or family that might help you understand the main character better, and scant introspection'deep or shallow'from the subject herself. The film follows Melania Trump through the 20 days leading up to her husband's second inauguration, hitting the same highlights you'd expect in a 'Get ready with me' wedding video. She is seen approving invitations, trying on her dress, and, at one point, approving an appetizer that consists of caviar stuffed into a literal golden egg. Occasionally she interacts with staff, her husband, a foreign first lady, but mostly she is alone, even when tepidly doing the YMCA dance. So what even is Melania' Is it, as critics have suggested, a mockumentary, propaganda, the 'hard launch of a new lifestyle brand'' Or, as the Atlantic critic Sophie Gilbert suggests, is it something more akin...
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