“Whenever someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was always … in love.”
If there’s anything to know about Jennifer Lopez, it’s that she lives for a telenovela-worthy romance. On Wednesday the Nuyorican singer-actress launched a new trailer for her autobiographical musical movie, “This Is Me … Now: A Love Story.”
Out Feb. 16 on Prime Video, Lopez’s “narrative-driven cinematic odyssey” is teased with an epic, action blockbuster opening — following Lopez and her husband, Oscar-winning actor Ben Affleck, as they barrel across a salt flat like two love renegades on a motorcycle. Their joy ride eventually ends in a crash, prompting a cold reality check for the lovesick superstar.
“I know what they say about me, about hopeless romantics … that we’re weak,” says Lopez in a voice-over. “I’m not weak. I learned the hard way, not all love stories have a happy ending.”
A marathon of R&B and dance-pop jammers, “This Is Me … Now” is the thematic sequel to her 2002 record, “This Is Me … Then” — a classic work of bubble-gum R&B, which she dedicated to Affleck before their unceremonious split in 2004. The pair reconciled and married in 2022, Lopez’s fourth marriage to date.
In “Now,” which Lopez co-wrote with Matt Walton, she seems content to poke fun at herself in both the script and her songs. In the music video for the album’s funky lead single, “Can’t Get Enough,” Lopez cycles through a procession of posh weddings to handsome, albeit interchangeable gentlemen. The comedic element crescendos when her onscreen friends stage an intervention for what they think is sex addiction, and her fellow Nuyorican, rapper Fat Joe, makes a cameo as her fictional therapist.
The film, which was directed by music video maker extraordinaire Dave Meyers, also features appearances by Trevor Noah, Kim Petras, Post Malone, Keke Palmer, Sofia Vergara, Jenifer Lewis and Jay Shetty. The visuals of “Now” depict Lopez’s heart as a factory in disarray, and her mind as a meandering, sci-fi multiverse beyond comprehension.
As dizzying as the visuals are, fans online have already referred to the musical movie as “chaos.” The trailer does leave us with a juicy dilemma: Will J.Lo finally crack the code to the lasting, healthy romance of her dreams?