‘Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me’ documentary review: A grubby examination of the tabloid sensation’s life 

A still from Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me | Photo credit: Netflix

Throughout the 116 minutes of watching Anna Nicole Smith: You don’t know me, I’ve been thinking about the reasons I saw it; I watched it to review, of course, but would there be another reason to look at this illustration of a Wikipedia page? Why do people watch car accidents? Is it glee, relief at narrowly escaping, “I’m only going for God’s grace,” or just plain creepiness? That’s the point of this documentary, which Netflix describes as a “humanizing investigation into the life, death, and mysteries of Vickie Lynn Hogan — better known as model and actress Anna Nicole Smith.”

There’s definitely nothing humanizing about it unless you show Smith without makeup or go into vivid details about her breast augmentation surgery — much like abortion from the vagina’s perspective in Blond, a similarly exploitative look at another American icon, Marilyn Monroe. The documentary tries to draw a line between Smith and Monroe. It shows her reading a book about Monroe and ends with a shot of Smith singing with a portrait of Monroe in the background.

More than Smith’s life resembles Monroe’s, the documentary’s similarity is Blond this is sick and sad. Anna Nicole Smith: You don’t know me begins at the very beginning and ends at the end, with stops along the way from Smith’s transformation from teenage mother in Mexia, Texas to stripper in Houston, where she met 86-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall. There’s the marriage, Marshall’s death, the court case, Smith’s struggles with weight and drugs, pregnancy, the multiple likely fathers of the babies, the death of their son Daniel at age 20, and her death in 2007.

In terms of her career, the documentary follows her journey from being a waitress at Jim’s Krispy Fried Chicken in Mexico, where she met her first husband and Daniel’s father, chef Billy Wayne Smith, to being named Playboy’s Playmate of the Month in May 1992 and as Claudia Schiffer’s successor for the Guess jeans advertising campaign.

One of the only funny things about the documentary is the fact that her film career began as Za Za in 1994 The Hudsucker Proxy Directed by Joel Coen and written by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen and Sam Raimi! The documentary also reveals the reasons Smith chose to play Tanya Peters Naked Gun 33+1⁄3: The final insult (1994), instead The mask. It was the money that made her turn down the role – she was offered $50,000. your reality tv show, The Anna Nicole Showis mentioned as well as her disastrous performance at the 2004 American Music Awards.

There are interviews with everyone willing to speak, including Smith’s lover, confidante and Daniel’s part-time nanny Missy, who worked with her during the Houston stripper days when all the oil money was turned into little grass skirts for the dancers, Playboy -Photo editor Marilyn Grabowski, brother Donald Hart, Uncle George, stepbrother Donnie Hogan, tabloid journalist Kevin Smith, personal assistant Nathan Collins, bodyguard Big Moe and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, who prescribed methadone to Smith when she was eight months pregnant.

In contrast, we don’t learn anything about Smith from either the documentary or the Zeitgeist Pam & Tommy, although the sex tape is only mentioned in passing. No reasons are given as to why she appropriated Missy’s story of child abuse or any of her other experiments in truth. There’s definitely a story to be told about the explosion of celebrity culture when the thought that a clip from Smith would fetch $7,500 would make the videographer’s hand tremble. However, this documentary isn’t one to watch the $5 million lawsuit Smith was brought against new York Magazine for using a picture of her in a short skirt and cowboy boots eating chips for the White Trash Nation cover.

Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me is currently streaming on Netflix