When would be best for a documentary about America’s first lady to land in theatres? Probably not during a roiling political crisis, amid violent clashes between ICE agents and protesters on the streets of Minneapolis. But that’s how it’s shaking out, as Melania Trump releases a full-length, billionaire-funded movie about herself.
“Melania” will begin screening in cinemas on Jan. 30. Yes, in Canada too: Cineplex confirmed it will show in 14 locations including the GTA, London, Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver, as well as four cities in Alberta. Alberta-based Landmark Cinemas will also show it on 16 screens in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario. It will later stream on Amazon Prime.
“Everyone wants to know, so here it is,” is the teaser line. Whether or not ticket sales bear out this assertion remains to be seen.
This is a glossy, Amazon-backed, 104-minute film that aims to legitimize its subject in front of a mainstream audience — just as the chaos and tension of Trump’s second term hits a fever pitch.
Melania doesn’t seem pleased that her premiere is being overshadowed by the situation in Minnesota; she gave a rare interview to Fox News on Jan. 27, saying, “I’m calling for unity. I know my husband, the president, had a great call yesterday with the governor and the mayor, and they’re working together to make it peaceful and without riots.” The next morning, she promoted her film by ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
The documentary follows the usually enigmatic first lady during the 20 days leading up to her husband’s inauguration in January 2025. The trailer shows a sharply dressed Melania plotting her image; planting her stiletto boot down on the tarmac of history. She’s shown smiling more than usual — with her son, Barron, and with Queen Rania of Jordan on a plane. And in the trailer alone, we hear her voice a lot more than we are used to.
The film was made by Amazon MGM Studios, which struck a $40-million USD deal with the first lady for it, and reportedly spent a further $35 million marketing it.
It was directed by Brett Ratner, known for the “Rush Hour” series and “X Men: The Last Stand,” whose Hollywood career stalled in 2017 during the Me Too movement, after he was accused of sexual misconduct by six women, including actresses Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge.
Film industry staffers who worked on “Melania” told Rolling Stone that the shoot was “highly disorganized, very chaotic”; for instance, “members of the crew would board the Trump Organization’s Boeing 757 to film the first lady on a flight en route to Mar-a-Lago and end up without a ride home.” They also said that Ratner didn’t acknowledge crew members’ existence and “was the worst part of working on this project.”
Post-“Melania,” though, Ratner is now scheduled to make “Rush Hour 4.” The L.A. Times reported that this development came after President Trump urged Paramount owner Larry Ellison to revive the stalled franchise.
The Star’s request to interview Ratner went unanswered, and Amazon did not provide preview screeners to media.
A black-tie preview screening of the film was held at the White House last Saturday night, as tensions in Minneapolis intensified after ICU nurse Alex Pretti was fatally shot by ICE agents. Guests included Queen Rania, Apple CEO Tim Cook, boxer Mike Tyson and self-help guru Tony Robbins. German fashion photographer Ellen von Unwerth, whose work has appeared in Vogue and Vanity Fair, was there too; she shot Melania for the movie’s poster.
Melania’s relationship with the fashion world has been quite fraught. The former model arrived in the United States from Slovenia in 2001 on an EB-1 “Einstein visa” for persons of “extraordinary ability.” She married Trump, then a for-TV tycoon, in 2005, and appeared on the cover of Vogue in her Christian Dior wedding gown.
When her husband became U.S. president in 2017, there was some furor among designers about who would be willing to “dress” Melania. The honour of dressing a first lady is usually hotly competitive, especially in the cases of Jacqueline Kennedy and Michelle Obama, the latter of whom recently published a book, “The Look,” about the significance of clothing and visual presentation in that particular spotlight. But during Trump’s first term, American designers such as Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford and Zac Posen publicly refused to outfit his wife.
Ralph Lauren faced a boycott after Mrs. Trump chose to wear a Jackie Kennedy-inflected pale blue suit from his brand for the 2017 inauguration ceremony. No matter; she blithely continued to wear designer clothing that she purchased herself, mostly from European couture houses such as Dior, Givenchy and Valentino.
But by the 2025 inauguration, some of the fashion industry had bent to the right-leaning winds, alongside the media and tech billionaires who attended Trump’s second-term swearing in. The “Melania” film builds to that day, where she wore the much-memed Eric Javits hat, worn “Spy vs. Spy” style very low on the brow, hiding her eyes from view, paired with a navy coat by American designer Adam Lippes. That night, she wore a sleek, geometric black-and-white striped gown designed by her longtime stylist, Hervé Pierre.
Melania’s image has always been strictly controlled. In the tradition of royalty, and models, she is seen in photo ops but seldom heard. We know she likes blood red Christmas trees and hopes that children will Be Best, but not much more than that.
She has used rare public appearances to telegraph coded messages. Sometimes, her choices have been controversial — see the “I Really Don’t Care Do U” Zara jacket she wore to visit detained migrant children in 2018, or the colonial pith helmet she later wore on an African tour.
Over the past year, Melania has kept a noticeably low profile, aside from a couple of high-glamour appearances. On New Year’s Eve at Mar-a-Lago, she turned up the glitz in a silver sequined dress by Turkish brand The New Arrivals, with fresh blond highlights and more dramatic makeup than usual; at a state dinner in the U.K. last September, seated between Queen Camilla and Prince William, she wore a bold strapless Carolina Herrera gown with a pink belt.
So why bust out a full-length documentary now? Well, the lure of crafting the story, to “control an uncontrollable narrative,” is strong for famous people, said Justin Rawlins, a media studies professor at Ontario Tech University.
He pointed out that “the glamour quotient” of the trailer may signal an effort to “carve out more of her celebrity identity prior to her role as first lady; to have that define her.” Diversion and distraction seem to be the name of this game; to draw eyes from the disruption toward an intimate vision of mega-stylized femininity the MAGA movement has become known for.
As is quite common in the new era of celebrity docs — see both David and Victoria Beckham and Harry and Meghan — Melania is an executive producer of the film. She is different to an actress or athlete, given her proximity to political power, but the playbook is the same. “As with so many celebrity-involved documentaries, it will almost certainly attempt to both humanize and mythologize its subject,” said Rawlins. “It will be interesting to see what proportion of the former and the latter will be.”
The current U.S. administration uses astonishing imagery, across online channels, to telegraph strength, power and intimidation. Official White House channels share AI fantasy images of Trump in victory and of his “enemies” in defeat. Nothing is real. Everything is surreal.
By definition, a documentary is supposed to provide facts and information about a subject. Where does reality end and propaganda begin when this regime has such a penchant for enhancing both image and truth?
Viewer beware, Rawlins said, citing the notorious example of German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl’s 1935 propaganda film “Triumph of the Will,” which lionized Hitler’s rise to power and “grotesque cult of celebrity” in an attempt to normalize Nazi ideology.
Now, though, one hopes there is more media literacy and critical thinking at play, even as misinformation spreads like a virus online. “Documentaries have always been political refractions of the world; reflections less of the world itself and more of the filmmaker’s many choices as to how to approach the subject, what to include and omit,” said Rawlins. “I think audiences are generally aware these days that any documentary’s claims to objectivity should be scrutinized — unless the film’s message supports the beliefs that audience already holds.”
Money is the silent player here. “Melania” has the backing of one of the world’s wealthiest corporations (Amazon), as well as a legacy Hollywood studio (now owned by Amazon), as Rawlins pointed out. It’s getting a significant theatrical rollout. It’s a show of cultural power. It does seem possible some audiences will swallow the whole catfish, hook, line and sinker.
