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GLITTER

What You Need To Know:

Popular singer Mariah Carey stars in GLITTER as Billie Frank, a young woman with a great set of pipes. The movie opens with a scene showing her singing with her alcoholic black mother Lillian in a nightclub. Billie’s white father shows no interest in his daughter, so Lillian eventually has to give Billie to an orphanage. Years later, charismatic New York deejay Julian Dice discovers Billie. He gets her a recording contract while they fall in love and lust, but the road to superstardom is a rocky one. It causes divisions between Billie and Julian while Billie tries to find her long-lost mother.

Much of GLITTER is silly, pretentious and corny, which had some people in the audience laughing. Carey is not well served by the obvious incompetence of the director and the screenwriter. Also, although some of the music is catchy and sounds pretty, it isn’t beautiful or profound. Carey clearly has a great voice, however. Finally, despite a couple moral sentiments, GLITTER has an immoral pagan worldview that overtly supports fornication and cohabitation. Music and romantic love should not be the motivating factors in your life. God and Jesus Christ should.

Content:

(PaPa, Ro, Ho, B, LL, V, S, NN, AA, D, M) Immoral pagan worldview regarding human sexuality with a Romantic, emotional aspect & a homosexual aesthetic during early scenes but no explicit reference to homosexuality though music video director acts effeminate & male dancers in bikinis (see sex & nudity categories below, however), plus moral aspects where woman searches for her lost mother & woman tells audience that we should appreciate the people around us but no reference to God or God’s word, the Bible; 16 obscenities & 4 profanities; some fighting/scuffling, physical threats of violence & man fires gun at other man’s heart at close range but movie does not show bullet impacting man’s body thought later news report says victim has died; cohabitation between unmarried couple, implied fornication with couple lying in bed together, music video director acts effeminately, women dancer says she can shake her rear end better than another dancer so they compare themselves doing so, & some sensual dancing by people dressed only in skimpy swimsuits; partial male nudity including male dancers dancing in very skimpy swim trunks during disco & music video scenes with a homosexual aesthetic plus female cleavage & women in skimpy bikinis; alcohol use, bar scenes, alcoholic mother, & some people appear to be drunk; smoking; and, miscellaneous immorality such as mindless partying at discos, music video director treats women as sex objects & man breaks a financial promise.

More Detail:

Popular singer Mariah Carey made her reputation as a pop diva by belting out emotional romantic (with a small r) ballads. That same melodramatic sensibility takes over in her first foray on the silver screen, GLITTER. Regrettably, what sounds great in a concert hall or on a CD does not make for a good story or a wonderful experience at the movie theater. This is especially true if the movie lacks a strong moral sensibility, Christian theology or a biblical worldview, or if the movie violates some major moral values.

Carey stars in GLITTER as Billie Frank, a young woman with a powerful singing voice. The movie opens with a scene showing her singing with her alcoholic black mother Lillian in a nightclub where her mother performs. Billie’s white father shows no interest in his daughter, so Lillian eventually has to give Billie to an orphanage. Years later, charismatic New York deejay and producer Julian Dice discovers Billie. He gets her a recording contract while they fall in love and lust, but the road to superstardom is a rocky one. It causes divisions between Billie and Julian while Billie tries to find her long-lost mother.

Much of GLITTER is silly, pretentious and corny, which had some people in the audience laughing. This is probably because Carey and the filmmakers have decided to use the melodramatic sensibilities in many of her ballads to shape the situations on the screen. This would be fine were it not for the obvious incompetence of the director and the screenwriter, who don’t seem to have given much thought to what they were doing. Also, although some of the music is catchy and sounds pretty, it really isn’t that beautiful or profound. Carey has a great voice and not every song can be a masterpiece, but she should be singing much better songs.

Making matters worse is that Billie and Julian fornicate and cohabit with one another. Although the fornication is implied, the cohabitation is a major part of the story between Billie and Julian. In fact, marriage is never even mentioned. Thus, GLITTER suffers from a non-biblical worldview regarding romance and male/female relationships. Music and romantic love are the motivating factors for these people. Apparently, Carey and the filmmakers supporting her have a basically pagan worldview with Romantic notions about human emotions. They would do better if they focused on God and Jesus Christ instead.

On the positive side, Billie’s concern and search for her mother is morally admirable. She also tells an audience at one point that we should appreciate the people around us because circumstances might separate them from us for long periods of time, or even permanently. These good sentiments, however, cannot save GLITTER from the trashbin of cinematic history.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.