‘Milli Vanilli’ reviews: Paramount+ documentary pulls back the curtain on one of music’s biggest scandals
On October 24, 2023, Paramount+ released “Milli Vanilli,” a documentary directed by Luke Korem that tells the story of Robert “Rob” Pilatus and Fabrice “Fab” Morvan, who became fast friends during their youth in Germany. With Rob coming from a broken home and Fab having left an abusive household, they shared a similar upbringing and future goal: to become famous superstars. In a few short years, their dreams came true.
In 1989 their first album went platinum six times in the U.S., and the hit song “Girl You Know It’s True” sold more than 30 million singles worldwide. Rob and Fab, better known as “Milli Vanilli,” became the world’s most popular pop duo in 1990 and won the Grammy for Best New Artist. However, their ascension to success came with a devastating price that ultimately led to their infamous undoing. Critics have high praise for the film, which currently holds a 100% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Read our full review round-up below.
Owen Gleiberman of Variety says, “’Milli Vanilli’ becomes a poignant experience in making us realize that Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus, while complicit, were not ultimately to blame.” He adds, “Luke Korem’s captivating and surprisingly moving documentary adds another, richer layer to the saga. It tells the Milli Vanilli story from the point-of-view of Rob and Fab themselves — especially Fab, who unveiled himself to the filmmaker (Rob Pilatus, following a self-destructive downward spiral of drugs and despair, died in Los Angeles in 1998). We see how they started, why they struck their ‘deal with the devil’ (as you watch this part, it’s not all that impossible to imagine yourself doing the same thing), and who, exactly, the devil was. As a documentary, ‘Milli Vanilli’ brings off something at once strategic, artful, and humane: It presents what happened to Milli Vanilli so that we empathize directly with these two young men who were drawn, like sacrificial virgins, into the pop maelstrom.”
Martin Tsai of The Wrap notes, “Of course, almost everyone tries to evade responsibility for the calamity. Morvan says they had no choice but to go along due to their debt to Farian, a claim Segieth refutes. There are even discrepancies within Arista. Mitchell Cohen, artist and repertoire, denies any direct knowledge at the time, but Ken Levy, senior vice president, says Clive Davis and others were fully aware. These conflicting accounts assure the documentary’s objectivity. The truth is clearly somewhere in between. The archival footage, including some of their pre-fame TV appearances in Germany, appears to be exhaustively culled and restored. The additional interviewees, such as VJ “Downtown” Julie Brown, producer Timbaland, and various music journalists help supply important context.”
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Dan Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter praises the film, stating, “Luke Korem’s new documentary ‘Milli Vanilli’ attempts to give the ‘Blame It on the Rain’ non-singers 106 minutes of re-evaluation. Were they perpetrators or victims? If they were some gradation of the latter, who were the actual villains? If they were some gradation of the former, did the punishment fit the crime? What did Rob and Fab actually do, what was their actual sin and why did audiences respond the way they did?” He adds, “Insight into their earliest days comes courtesy of Ingrid Segieth, assistant to German producer Frank Farian and recounter of an origin story in which neither non-singer expressed any reservations at all, as well as Charles Shaw, Brad Howell, Linda Rocco and Jodie Rocco, actual vocalists on ‘Girl You Know It’s True’ and more. In terms of their American breakout, we hear from an assistant manager, three threatening Arista Records executives, and, naturally enough, MTV’s ‘Downtown’ Julie Brown.”
Christopher Bourne of In Review Online writes, “’Milli Vanilli,’ in the end, functions as a potent cautionary tale about the pitfalls of pop stardom, and of the exploitation of the naïve and vulnerable that often exists as the flipside to glittering fame.” Bourne continues, “This film makes the compelling case that they, while certainly complicit, were ultimately not to blame, and suffered the most from the scheme, while the big-wigs who masterminded and greatly profited (including Arista Records’ head honcho Clive Davis) escaped with their reputations largely unscathed.”
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