Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl
By Jennifer Green,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Docu about county singer has positive messages, language.
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Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl
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What's the Story?
From her very humble beginnings in small-town Ontario to the international stage as a country-pop superstar, SHANIA TWAIN: NOT JUST A GIRL follows the singer's life and career. She talks about different stages in her life, and other people -- including colleagues and other artists -- comment on her evolution as an artist and her impact on them and the industry as a whole. Twain talks about personal struggles, artistic influences, and career highs and lows. Footage from past interviews, concerts, news clips, and music videos fill in decades of her life and work.
Is It Any Good?
This documentary focuses on an image of Shania Twain as an innovative, genre-bending, record-breaking artist, so it's surprising the film itself doesn't aim for that same originality. Instead, Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl relies on a predictable combination of archive footage and interviews, strung together with intertitles filling in biographical details and career highlights. Even so, Twain's landmark career and the childhood struggles that she overcame are a story worth telling. The theme here is Twain's status as a feminist who blazed a path for artists as wide-ranging as Avril Lavigne, Orville Peck, and Kelsea Ballerini.
The evidence is clear and unequivocal. An opening sequence with Twain in voiceover proclaiming she's always wanted to make her own decisions and not depend on anyone else fits with many of her best-known lyrics, and they introduce the trailblazing career the film goes on to detail. The documentary does drop some strings, like what happened to the siblings she took care of and her own son? And it completely ignores other parts of her life, like her second husband -- though her 2010 divorce from the first is given a lot of screen time.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what parts of Twain's life Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl focuses on. Were there parts missing? What more would you have liked to know about her or her life and career?
What do you think have been some of the keys to Twain's success, based on what she and people around her -- like her bandmates, producers, and managers -- say?
How would you characterize her music -- is it more country, pop, or a combination therein? What other artists does her music remind you of?
How does Twain embody character strengths like perseverance and courage?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: July 26, 2022
- Cast: Shania Twain , Kelsea Ballerini , Marc Bouwer
- Director: Joss Crowley
- Inclusion Information: Female actors
- Studio: Netflix
- Genre: Documentary
- Topics: Arts and Dance , Music and Sing-Along
- Character Strengths: Courage , Perseverance
- Run time: 88 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: February 17, 2023
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