Obsessed

Yikes! Courting controversy, I guess, but am I the only one not in a permanent state of thrall to Beyonce, one of a number of on-going pretenders to the title of Queen of Pop but now in a different light after swiftly ditching her LGBTQ+ credentials to play a $24 million one hour private set in gay-rights-un-friendly resort Dubai? Sure, signature song Crazy in Love is a stone cold belter for weddings and parties, but not exactly an original song, and although she’s a still a household name, her pop culture achievements in cinema are somewhat less than monumental. Her film career is a stop-start affair, with her breakout role as Foxxy Cleopatra in the Austin Powers in Goldmember movie, then playing opposite Steve Martin in the Pink Panther reboot; hardly jewels in anyone’s crown.

The appropriately named Steve Shill’s 2009 Fatal Attraction knock-off Obsessed is probably the biggest solo cinematic success for the Destiny’s Child star, and for all its slickness, the view of women expressed here is hardly positive or progressive. Beyonce plays everyday LA housewife Sharon Charles, happily married to businessman Derek (Idris Elba) until he pops up on the radar of attractive, sexually active woman Lisa Sheridan (Ali Larter). In films like this, sexually active women = trouble, and despite Derek’s rebuffs of her advances, Lisa quickly forces herself into Sharon’s family life, and things come to a head in a wild catfight between the two women…

Obsessed is a slick, sick movie, slipping in bangers like Estelle’s American Boy on the soundtrack to lighten the mood, but generally falling into line with the usual misogynist attitudes that are familiar from any other ‘women-are-the-devil’ potboilers. It’s predictable, regressive, forgettable stuff, but the painfully off-hand treatment of the gay characters reflects a general reinforcement of negative stereotypes throughout the film.

Like the rather more streetwise Lizzo, Beyonce fell foul of the culture wars last year when they both, inexplicably, felt that the derogatory term ‘spaz’, should be part of the lyrics that they offer up as role models. Watching this mean-spirited exploitation film makes you glad that Beyonce’s A Star Is Born movie, originally set to be directed by Clint Eastwood, never happened, particularly given how well the Bradley Cooper/Lady Gaga version turned out. Maybe Beyonce will re-discover her mojo and make it big in the movies one day, but dubious enterprises like Obsessed suggest that rather than putting a ring on it, she’s be better off putting a sock in it. Like the similarly sullied ‘anyone’s for a buck’ ambassador David Beckham, she’s someone who never shuts up about their work for good causes until someone offers her a wheelbarrow of used notes and then her role-model credentials are suddenly yesterday’s news…