Thursday, April 18, 2019

The Most Illuminating Moments in Beyoncé’s Homecoming

Behold: Beyoncé Knowles Carter has made her Netflix debut, with a two-hour-and-17-minute documentary-slash-concert film that takes viewers inside her historic 2018 Coachella headlining set. Homecoming is as slickly produced as any Beyoncé joint—but as Yohana Destanotes, it still contains a tantalizing bit of insight into the performer’s closely guarded inner life. Its most revealing moments find the singer speaking quasi-candidly about her difficult second pregnancy, which gave Beyoncé and husband Jay-Z twins Sir and Rumi: “she had high blood pressure and preeclampsia, she says, and weighed 218 pounds by the time she gave birth,” Desta recounts. “In order to get fit for Coachella, she cut out dairy, carbs, alcohol, and a whole host of other things, while also juggling motherhood.” Beyoncé herself lets her mask of perfectionism drop for just a moment in the film when opening up about this challenging period: “I would dance and go off to the trailer and breastfeed the babies,” she says in Homecoming. “There were days I thought I’d never be the same.”
Elsewhere in HWD, Laura Bradley chats with Emmy winner Margo Martindale about her juicy arc on The Act;Julie Miller dives into the tragic story of Joan McCracken, second wife of Bob Fosse (as played by Susan Misneron Fosse/Verdon); ex-Fox News reporter Diana Falzonereveals how the #MeToo era has, in many cases, made it even more difficult for women to get ahead in TV news; and we look back fondly at historic images of Notre-Dame in film, as Paris regroups from the devastating fire that hit the cathedral Monday.