THE fashion for docu-biographies continues with Kylie (Netflix, available now), directed by the producer responsible for the documentary series Beckham in 2023. Kylie is also an entertaining and nostalgic tribute with the tissue-thin insights that you would expect from a production in which the star is heavily involved.<\/p>\n
That is no reason to deter you from watching this sentimental and, at times, touching homage to the Princess of Pop (Madonna being the Queen, of course), whose songs<\/a> have been streamed more than five billion times. There is the usual archive footage and personal recollections, as well as contributions from her sister, Dannii, and Nick Cave, Pete Waterman, and Jason Donovan, who, unfortunately, wears a pair of leather trousers for his interview, providing a cringey foreshadowing of how that goes. Bitter, much? Yes, he is, and not without reason \u2014 Kylie left him for Michael Hutchence \u2014 but he is nothing if not refreshingly honest, God love him.<\/p>\n There is a lot of fun here, particularly in the contributions from Waterman (no stranger to hyperbole), reflecting on his first meeting with Kylie: \u201cThere\u2019s a small Antipodean in reception, wanting to make a record.\u201d His musings on pop are typically mercenary: \u201cIt\u2019s disposable. . . You don\u2019t analyse it to find out what\u2019s happening in Nicaragua.\u201d He might be right; but I prefer the description from the unlikely source of Cave, who described it as \u201ca joy machine\u201d.<\/p>\n Cave described Kylie as \u201ca beam of light\u201d, someone who \u201clikes life\u201d, which is extra-poignant in the light of her diagnoses for cancer, first in 2004 and then again in 2021. I really enjoyed this uplifting portrayal of the Australian<\/a> \u201cgirl next door\u201d who found her niche and has owned it unapologetically ever since.<\/p>\n