Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Britney Vs. Spears’ On Netflix, A Documentary That Exposes How The Legal System Failed The Pop Icon

Britney Spears is everywhere these days. In the news, in documentaries like Framing Britney Spears and Controlling Britney Spears on Hulu, all over social media with the #FreeBritney movement. With her 13-year conservatorship potentially about to end, more revelations are coming to light. Britney Vs. Spears, now streaming on Netflix, dives deeper into the way the system – and everyone else – failed the pop star. 

BRITNEY VS. SPEARS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: At this point, we’ve all heard some version of Britney Spears’s story; a little girl with a voice makes it big, steals hearts, sells out stadiums, and eventually has a very public mental health crisis mocked by many. In the aftermath of this crisis, Spears’s rights to, well, be an independent human are taken away from her by her father Jamie, who becomes the conservator of her person and estate. 13 years later, the #FreeBritney movement is loud as anything, and we know now that Britney’s long battle to end this conservatorship may finally result in a victory. But the road that led here is complicated, to say the least.

Rather than rehashing a ton of what we already know, filmmaker Erin Lee Carr and journalist Jenny Eliscu put their heads together to dive deeper into the story behind Britney’s conservatorship and the systems (and individuals) that failed her.  We learn how the conservatorship began, and how quickly all her basic human freedoms were stripped away. We hear in her own words how Jamie allegedly threatened to take Britney’s kids away if she didn’t do as he said. Because of Eliscu’s personal connection to Britney, we’re also told a new story about one of Britney’s attempts to get her own lawyer. With the help of experts, attorneys, former backup dancers, and familiar faces like Britney’s former assistant Felicia, ex-boyfriend Adnan Ghalib, and former manager Sam Lutfi, we start to get a full picture of what was really happening to Britney behind the scenes – and it’s even more heartbreaking and infuriating than we’ve been led to believe.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Britney Vs. Spears will remind you a bit of the two other Britney docs out there, Framing Britney Spears and Controlling Britney Spears, but may also bring to mind Erin Lee Carr’s other work, like Mommy Dead and Dearest and At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal.

Memorable Dialogue: There were some lines in Britney Vs. Spears that took my breath away, but Adnan Ghalib recounting bringing Britney home to her father at his request and explaining to her why he had to obey this demand really got me: “…Without his permission, because he is you, I’ve kidnapped you.” It just really illustrates how quickly and cruelly Britney’s personhood was stripped away from her.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: We’ve heard Britney’s story a few times now. The pop star’s ongoing battle to end her conservatorship has made headlines and inspired documentaries, and the #FreeBritney movement has taken off in ways that still surprise. So when I entered Britney Vs. Spears, Netflix’s foray into the circus (no pun intended), I was a little curious what else there really was for us to learn. I was pleasantly surprised by Carr’s film, a heartfelt, if occasionally confused, examination of the way systems and individuals have failed Spears.

Throughout Britney Vs. Spears, I found myself brought back to popping Britney’s CDs into my black-and-yellow walkman, of learning every lyric (and attempting her choreography), of begging my parents to buy me her latest album. This is a film that seeks to remind us of why we fell in love with her in the first place, and just how devastating it’s been to watch a woman on top of the world have that world taken from her by her own father. Carr, a fan of Spears since childhood, brings her enduring affection for the star to the project, while Eliscu formed a working relationship with Spears over the years and later attempted to help her get a new attorney early on during the conservatorship. These connections to Spears and the choice to tell the story partially through their eyes are what help make Britney Vs. Spears such an interesting documentary.

Carr has frequently explored the oppression of women in her work with truly great results, and Britney Vs. Spears is no exception; it’s not just a rehashing of the stories we’ve already heard. It feels like a genuine effort to make a difference, to break through all the noise and the headlines and remind us that there is a real person suffering at the heart of this story. It shows us how we – the conservatorship system, the legal system, the media – failed her. And because of that failure, she lost some 13 years of being in control of her own life. Britney Vs. Spears cares about Britney getting that control back, and about confronting the systems that failed her – and that’s what allows it to stand out from the rest.

Our Call: STREAM IT. There’s no denying that Britney’s story is getting tired with each big screen treatment it receives without her input. Thanks to Erin Lee Carr’s personal touch, however, Britney Vs. Spears makes a strong case for itself as a moving examination of all the ways so many have failed her.

Jade Budowski is a freelance writer with a knack for ruining punchlines, hogging the mic at karaoke, and thirst-tweeting. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski.

Stream Britney Vs Spears on Netflix