'Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil' Review: Addiction, Editorialized [SXSW 2021]
‘Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil’ straddles the line between a truth and reconciliation council, and a carefully calibrated cross examination.
It’s funny how, even though “Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil” is the former Disney star’s first foray into a documentary, the miniseries, chronicling Demi Lovato’s battle with addiction, plays like a sequel. As the singer-songwriter takes her seat in the hot chair alongside a multitude of friends and family, the feeling of regrouping, of reconvening, sinks in as the events leading to Lovato’s 2018 heroin overdose are unpacked. It’s not too long into “Dancing with the Devil” that the reason behind this sense of deja vu reveals itself. The series, produced by Michael D. Ratner for YouTube Originals, is not the first attempt at a career contemplation for the singer-songwriter. Similarly to Lovato’s struggles with returning to substance abuse, the creators and cast have all been here before.
Interwoven between interviews that took place after the star’s 2018 overdose are snippets of a previously unreleased documentary preceding her fateful trip to the hospital. Because of the film’s dual timeline structure, the series plays out almost like a true crime retelling, rather than as a standard music doc. Recent documentaries on musicians (for example, “Miss Americana”, or “Shawn Mendes: In Wonder”) have been focused on more present events or abstract portraits, but “Dancing With the Devil” has another prerogative. Yes, the series is an examination of a dark period of Lovato’s life. However, even moreso, it is also the story that tries to solve some mysteries. The first is what happened to Demi Lovato on July 24, 2018; the second, more interesting but eventually left unresolved, is the question of how she got to such a low point in the first place.
It’s obvious that the series proposes to be an unfiltered look at Lovato’s various inner demons (devils, if you will), but with every segment there is an aura of glamour that seems to hold back the intent of the series. Each interview takes place within beautifully composed frames. Everyone, including managers, assistants, friends, and family members, has a full hair and make-up crew touching them up. Every tough question is answered flawlessly by each respondent. Elton John and Will Ferrell are ready to make surprise appearances. Even the hand-drawn animations used to recreate various moments are meticulously and minimally rendered. All this, combined with how the footage of the older, unreleased documentary is stylized in a similar manner, makes it hard to differentiate between the tones of both timelines. Visually, it begs the question of what has changed between the original filming and the reshoots post-overdose.
There is no doubt that the confessions made and stories shared are genuine from Lovato and friends’ perspectives, but there is a shying away from, not necessarily the “truth”, but the ugliness of the truth that unfortunately leaves an artificial taste in the mouth. Lovato, however, is as vulnerable as she can be within the aesthetics of the series. Underneath the backdrop of lavishness, there is a truth that these people want to tell. If anything is holding back that truth, it’s not the participants, but the filmmaking.
Structurally, the miniseries is divided up into four sections, each centered around the 2018 overdose. It’s important to remember that “Dancing with the Devil” is not a full oral history of the life and times of Demi Lovato. The causes of her addiction trauma, the climatic events of that addiction, and epilogue of those events are the throughlines and guiding paths upon which each piece of backstory needs to align. And though the storytelling allows us to somewhat understand how Lovato could get to such a dark place the night of her overdose, there are some black spaces and points of trauma that are glossed over.
Aspects that may have benefited from a closer look, and helped to paint a better picture of the singer and her descent into addiction include her time at Disney - which is more or less ignored - possible tumultuous relationships with family and friends, or even the relationship between her and her drug dealer. These and many other potentially enlightening storylines are either skimmed on the surface or never addressed at all. Conversely, the points of interest that are presented are just specific and vague enough to create a backstory that is compelling in the moment, but fails to linger after the credits roll.
While the series is certainly one of the glitziest, editorial pictures of a former heroin addict, at the end of the day, audiences will be able to empathize with the weight of Lovato’s addictions. Not due to filmmaking or structuring that would have made for the “raw”, “all cards on the table” tell-all that the series yearns to be, but because of Lovato herself. Her presence on camera, even under the make-up, feels emotionally tangible, unfiltered, and open to any question thrown her way. It’s a shame that the interviewer is not willing to dive to the same depths that Lovato seems like she wants to go. It becomes clear that at a certain point, we see the documentarian’s hand in meddling with the direction of her interviews.
In this sense, “Dancing with the Devil” has a sad, but intriguing twist of irony baked into its existence. Here we have a woman whose story of addiction is being told from the point of view of those whose intent is to craft a narrative rather than let it unravel. For Demi Lovato fans, it will most definitely be an uplifting, phoenix-rising tale of their favorite artist and her new lease on life. On the other side of that coin are producers and management who are making sure that at the end of the day, the story remains on track, vague enough to be relatable, and most importantly, positive. After all, how are they going to sell those singles when the album of the same name drops?