The film deals with a wide range of character shots over decades. There is still a different path to take, through an intimate course by the Sri Lankan artist and musician who continues to break traditions everywhere.
Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. is an illuminating and enjoyable portrait of one of the most interesting pop musicians of this century who, even after this, remains inscrutable in many of the ways that matter.
It is the synthesis of these contradictions, and how they've illuminated M.I.A.'s career path that makes up the spine of Loveridge's fascinating portrait.
[M.I.A's] overarching story of art, politics and disenchantment, so common to the music documentary, is satisfying as an argument against artifice. M.I.A., the artist, activist and person, is everything you've heard and more.
Loveridge celebrates the mashup aesthetic that enabled the artist to find a voice, and reveals that reconciling contradictions... is key to both Arulpragasam's music and the life she's constructed with audacity and wit.
...this documentary is trying to evoke the coolness of M.I.A. and if there's anybody who doesn't deserve the disservice of a bland tribute it's M.I.bloody.A. (innit?).
