Gaga: Five Foot Two isn’t exactly what you’d expect from a Lady Gaga documentary, but that’s what makes it oh-so-Gaga.
Netflix released Gaga: Five Foot Two last week. The documentary follows Lady Gaga over a period of eight months. It shows her in big career moments like preparing for the release of her album Joanne, filming American Horror Story, and her Super Bowl halftime performance.
It also shows her in more personal moments, revealing insecurities and pains. The deeply personal moments play into Gaga’s style of doing the bold and unexpected. She’s sharing intimate details of her life with the world.
In doing so, the documentary reaches what’s so great about Lady Gaga: she’s strange and bold, but she’s also deeply sincere and honest. The balance of those characteristics makes her a superstar. They are also what make the documentary so watchable.
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Here are some of the best, most Gaga moments of Gaga: Five Foot Two.
Buying records at Walmart
With Joanne finally released to the world, Lady Gaga goes to Walmart to find it out in the wild. At first, no one recognizes her. When the store manager comes to help her, he tells her she cannot film in the store. Moments later, the staff recognizes her and they allow her to resume filming.
While at Walmart, she takes pictures with fans and moves copies of her CD to the front of music displays. She tells the manager she wanted to check on the CD because the record business is tough. When she leaves, she only buys two things: copies of Joanne and big bags of candy.
This moment shows Lady Gaga interacting with her music in a way that’s familiar to any who have followed her career. It’s fun.
Spending time with her grandmother
One of the most emotional moments of the documentary is when Gaga visits her grandmother. It’s a fun family visit in many ways. Gaga brings flowers, her grandmother feeds her, and they look through old family pictures and keepsakes.
The scene gets in emotional when Gaga and plays the song “Jonanne” for her. It’s the first time her grandmother has listened to the song, which Gaga wrote, in part, for her. The song is about Lady Gaga’s aunt Joanne who died at age 19 from Lupus complications.
This scene shows the deep sincerity and love Gaga has always shown us all. I think it shows that her grandmother has that love inside of her, too.
The baptism of her goddaughter
In the middle of performances, creating an album, and dealing with chronic pain is a moment unlike any other in the documentary. Lady Gaga attends the baptism of her goddaughter.
The scene is visually different than any other in the documentary, with soft colors and pink dresses. It’s also tonally different. This is a moment for celebration and family. It is about Gaga as a person, not a performer.
This is also the moment that features the song “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue.” It seems fitting that the title of Gaga’s documentary comes from a scene in the documentary that is unlike any other.
Struggling with chronic pain
One of the biggest reveals in the documentary was that Lady Gaga has been struggling with chronic pain for years. She hurt her hip three years ago during a performance, and ever since it has caused problems with her hips and with pain.
In one scene, Gaga is both vulnerable and self-aware. As she’s lying on a couch in a bout of intense pain, she asks, “Do I look pathetic?” She’s showing something intimate and un-glamorous. At the same time, she says the pain makes her think of others who are struggling. She thinks of those who have pain similar to hers, but don’t have the money to pay for the kind of help she’s receiving.
This awareness of others in the midst of her pain is something Gaga has always done well. She’s an artist with feelings and dark pains. She’s also an advocate for others. She knows her privilege and she uses it to help others in need.
Her Super Bowl performance
Early on in the documentary, Gaga reveals why she’s done so much “extreme shit” in her career. She said, “When they wanted me to be ‘sexy’ or they wanted me to be ‘pop,’ I always…put some absurd spin on it that made me feel like I was still in control.”
That need for control is deeply rooted in all of her career decisions, and it is present in her rehearsal for the Super Bowl halftime performance. With costumes, she keeps asking to be informed. She says she cannot get her performance right until all the little changes are made. She’s involved with every step of the process, paying attention to the details.
Her Super Bowl performance was controversial because many people thought she failed to take a stand against intense political issues at the time. The documentary feels aware of that tension. It shows the care she took with the performance, even if she wasn’t able to please everyone.
In Gaga fashion, the documentary ends just before the performance, leaving us on a high note and wondering what’s coming next.