Girl You Know It's True (2023) User Reviews

Entertaining biopic very close to (one of several) truths

[modchipcentral · 8/10 · 29 December 2023]

Now, I'm in a weird position as I have been involved with the Milli Vanilli story on my job and I have listened to first hand accounts of two of the advisory producers. But having said that, I can confirm that this film shows what really happened with Milli Vanilli in general and Rob Pilatus in particular. The only inaccuracies were in minor issues the don't affect the story.

But historic accuracy is, of course, only one factor: The acting is good. Matthias Schweighöfer should be mentioned as his acting is better than in most of his movies. One highlight is the optical similarities between the actual Milli Vanilli and their movie counterparts which is astonishing!

The music is, of course, very good as we must not forget that Milli Vanilli was the biggest band in the world for one crazy summer - they milked that nicely.

Overall the biopic worked, it represented the characters truthfully and honors the honest, unflattering legacy of Rob Pilatus.

The one thing that was ignored (and I admit, it is hard to include in a movie without resorting to subtitles) was the fact that Rob and Fab didn't even speak proper English when they were moved to London. Rob had a thick Bavarian accent when speaking English, but the film only focuses on Fab's French accent, which is a shame as it underlines the international turning of at least one blind eye at the fact that not only their singing voices didn't match - both their accents didn't match either.

It's a tragedy for me to see, the dream is over...

[fernasamir · 8/10 · 4 May 2024]

Rob & Fab were the Superstars of 1989 and although I wasn't a fan back than, the hype was felt by everyone. And suddenly it was all over... Simon Verhoeven made a great biopic about the rise and fall of those two guys, that works on different levels. The wall breaking was a nice touch, but what really worked, was the acting of the two leads, who fit perfectly. Combined with Matthias Schweighöfer as Farian the casting was top notch. Of course the script tried to shift the blame from the protagonists and yes, you will feel sorry for them, but what stays, is the fantastic product of Milli Vanilli, that wouldn't have worked without Rob &Fab. The movie tries to give them the credit they deserve. All in all, "Girl you know it's true" is really worth a watch, especially for everyone who was around when it all happened.

Not bad! I hadn't expected that. I

[xnicofingerx · 7/10 · 25 April 2024]

Not bad! I hadn't expected that. I would even attest to the international standard of the production. A brisk production, an interesting story, of course, that's what it was, but with a few shortcomings in the acting. An entertaining biopic designed to entertain.

Of course Schweighöfer is, as always, a minus point at first, but that neutralises itself at some point. Either you get used to his eternally identical performance over the course of the film or he finds his way into the role quite well. He's always got a mischievous side to him and somehow can't be taken seriously.

As I said, the story is a self-runner. Exciting, tragic, sometimes simply unbelievable. A wonderful journey through time.

Entertaining & nice to look at, but still empty.

[xghnrvk · 7/10 · 29 December 2023]

The headline sums it up pretty good: it all looks good and the formalistic breaking of the fourth wall feels fresh and original, but like Milli Vanilli, the film is a pretty shell with nothing inside. We never get close to the characters. There are some attempts to provide psychological motivation or emotional depht (like Fab trying to impress his stubbornly unimpressed mother over the phone or Robs search for his father), but it all feels perfunctory. And despite some good moments, in the end I still don't know why this story is supposed to be so wildly fascinating or why I should care for its protagonists.

Amazing film with great music

[knowledgebase-40430 · 9/10 · 31 December 2023]

Compliments to Simon Verhoeven: no banal black and white with good guys and bad guys, but a differentiated view. I find this all the more remarkable because it is an entertainment film and not a report.

I suspect that the attempt to give credit to the truth was also the reason why the film even got the rights from Frank Farian.

In a time of superficiality, I find it very positive when a director doesn't aim for maximum cheap sensationalism with simplistic Hollywood good-evil cateories, but rather for balance.

Schweighöfer, who I actually don't think is that great, I find very convincing as a FF.

And the way the two actors portray Rob and Fab, who had been professional dancers for years, make the MV phenomenon of that time understandable today is exceptionally good.

Despite the 2 hour running time, I think that the film would have benefited from another 15-30 minutes:

The explosive rise in the USA to superstardom and the personal problems that come with such a life could have beenfitted from more time. Or the personal problems of superstars, who are ultimately very alone after the adrenaline and drug rush.

I think also the very difficult personal decisions that were made, could have been more emphasized and therefore benefited the emotional side of the movie: Farian in Europe, not able to get his boys flying high under control far away in the USA, and therefore deciding with a heavy heart to cancel the project, or on the other hand, the two giving back their Grammies (nobody could have taken the Grammies from them) showing decency, way more decency than the really horrible media exaggerating the "scandal" for - profit.

Even to this day, the media is lying that this was the "biggest scandal" in music history. As if Hollywood and the showbusiness was ever about authenticity...

Congrats to Simon Verhoeven, for setting the record straight with an enjoyable entertainment film.

Don't blame it on the rain

[kosmasp · 10/10 · 10 January 2024]

No pun intended obviously. And as the title a riff on one of the hit songs from the duo ... well I am not sure I can only call them duo ... considering how many people were behind the success. Still the two "singers" are the faces (but especially the bodies) of the success. This is a really crazy (mostly) true story we get served here.

I am really curious and want to watch the documentary that has been made about them. But this is really well done - it does concentrate more on one of the two members ... but they are both mesmerizing ... they are both really charismatic ... they both had something about them ... and they both rose up too fast for their own good.

Even with almost a two hour running time, there is a lot this cannot cover ... the movie makes fun of the backstory (how long do you want to cling on the past/kids days?) ... but it is necessary to see where they came from - again more focus on one of them.

The almost funny thing about everything is, that I watched a dubbed version (Schweighöfer did his own voice, not sure about the two leads - I assume they did their voice too - but again, super funny no matter who did their voice). I only went to that version because I thought the movie would be in German ... them having success and living here.

I do not know too many details ... but the leads and every actor for that matter did a terrific job. I never had heard of the female that helped Farian ... also her being (probably/allegedly) one inspiration for the band name .... nickname being Milli.

Details seem to fit the bill ... but there are many versions of the story and the truth may not unfold totally ... like when the movie also tells us ... hey we don't know if this actually happened ... on the other hand - both "singers" may not have remembered everything that they went through ... for apparent reasons (see the movie).

Then there are things that I do wonder about ... like their look - the hair thing gets sort of touched upon. There is a scene that explains it - though I have no idea where they found those pictures. Anyway, there is also the clothes ... the style that was used. They were quite ... well if you saw them, they stuck with you! Who decided that? It looked like Milli was responsible, but maybe it only looked like she decided that ... maybe it was Farian .. maybe the duo themselves had a saying ... whatever the case, the movie is really well done ... ba ba ba ba ba baby! Don't forget their number! Important lessons learned - hopefully.

Edit: I watched the press conference they gave ... the one that is also in the movie. The real one was quite the mess ... the movie did a good job ... by not copying it. But made it something almost different. Obviously real life is way more complex - you can't comprehend or put everything in this. I still wish I had known this was shot in English - even more so because some French passages were kept in French anyway.

The music still works, I showed their first music video to a younger colleague and she was quite smitten by them. Or at least that's what she told me. I choose to believe they still would have that effect on people. Fame and money ... they are quite poisonous ... add drugs to the mix and it gets out of hand. Music history was written ... and quite a crazy one ...