Running time: 102 minutes. Rated PG (thematic material and brief smoking images). On Prime Video June 25.
One of the rawest moments I’ve ever seen in a documentary about a living superstar comes near the end of “I Am: Celine Dion.” The “My Heart Will Go On” singer, who suffers from a rare neurological disorder called stiff person syndrome that’s hindered her ability to sing and even walk, is at a physical therapy session in 2022 when she begins having a seizure. Facing downward on a massage table, the 56-year-old frighteningly convulses and writhes in pain until she can no longer move.
Dion, curled up, moans in agony. A man then calmly tells her to squeeze his hand if she can hear him. “Do you want us to take out the cameras?” the physio asks the singer about the documentary crew.
“I’m OK,” she mouths. Right then, Dion is clearly not OK. But the brave celeb wants to unsparingly show the world what she’s been going through: the titanic battle that’s ripped her away from where she belongs — the stage.
And opening up is exactly what she does in the excellent “I Am: Celine Dion,” which hits Prime Video on June 25. By turns harrowing, humorous and hopeful, the Celine documentary does not hold back. In an entertainment landscape cluttered with carefully curated images and inauthentic public relations campaigns, the film’s brutal honesty is refreshing — shocking, even — if hard for a Celine fan, such as myself, to witness.
“I feel like I shoul.
