Glitter / YMMV - TV Tropes

Accidental Innuendo: "Sylk, I didn't know you could blow like that!"
Alternate Character Interpretation: Some viewers believe that Dice, not Timothy, was the film's true Big Bad. He manipulates Billie, engages in an underhanded deal with Timothy to buy her out, is angry, jealous and possessive of her most of the time, he's hostile towards anyone else who works with her (including her two best friends), he rides her coattails (even claiming that without him, she wouldn't be a success to begin with), potentially ruins her career by getting arrested before a big performance and doesn't feel any remorse for doing it and makes a nasty insult towards her long-disappeared mother. Timothy wasn't a saint himself, but Dice could easily be seen as an abusive boyfriend.
Awesome Music:
- Zig-zagged. Although "Loverboy" was roasted alive (while embraced in the film), Mariah's other songs, "Reflections" and "Never Too Far" are at least touching, if not too sweet.
- Her remake of Cherrelle's "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On" (made famous by Robert Palmer) was rather fun and bouncy (no pun intended); she also added ad-libs using her signature whistle register which weren't in the original song which some may feel was needed.
- We also hear Luther Vandross' "Never Too Much" and Stevie Wonder's "All I Do" playing, but sadly, they are either relegated to the background or heard too briefly. The soundtrack itself has covers of various hits from the '80s (one of the few things they tried to get right). One feels that Mariah added a few "finishing touches" to certain songs on the album.
- The entire album itself. While it was considered average at best at the time the film was released, now almost 18 years later it's made it on iTunes Top Ten. #justiceforglitter indeed.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
- Dice's sudden jazz session with a couple of friends. Is it catchy? Sure. Does it have any genuine bearing on the plot? Not really. Did we need to see the scene of him teaching the beat to the session drummer that badly?
- Similarly, the single, randomly-placed silver streaks seen on Billie's body. The first one that was seen when she was making the "Loverboy" video sort of made sense, but when they kept appearing on her (and without any explanation as to why) you have to wonder what was the point of them in the first place.
Harsher in Hindsight: "Loverboy" is Billie's breakthrough hit... and was a critical and commercial failure for Mariah, which only managed to sell well and climb to #2 in the US following a Virgin promotion offering the CD for a bargain-priced 49 cents. (thus it was simultaneously the best-selling single of 2001, with over 500,000 copies, and ranked only 80th on the Year-End Hot 100)
- If the fact that this movie was released around the time of the September 11 attacks (and the soundtrack was released on that day as well) wasn't enough, an image can be found that shows an advertisement for the movie in front of the burning towers.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Terrence Howard portraying a manipulative and sleazy record producer? Yeah, that'll never happen again.
Life Imitates Art: Billie doing a sold-out concert after hearing Dice was murdered. In 2020, Céline Dion did a concert the day her mother died at the age of 92.
Memetic Mutation: "Sylk, I didn't know you could blow like that!" As RiffTrax put it, "Wow, he must've seen a different show than we did."
Narm:
- Timothy threatening Billie ends up as this due to one moment:
  "Now, I don't want to have to hurt you… But I will." ^note
- The creation of "Never Too Far". As great as a song it is, the film tries to showcase that Billie and Dice are so spiritually and romantically connected that they can coordinate the song's music and lyrics. This is in spite of them being miles apart at the time and their actively quasi-abusive relationship.
Retroactive Recognition: Padma Lakshmi plays the Hollywood Tone-Deaf prima donna "superstar" Sylk who Billie and her friends initially sing back-up for.
Special Effects Failure:
- One for an establishing shot; the New York scenes start out with epic panning helicopter shots, but it's clearly downtown Toronto and is instantly recognizable by anyone even remotely familiar with both cities.
- When Dice is walking up to Billie during the freestyle session, the background goes blurry. While it was likely done to make Dice and Billie stand out of the large crowd, it makes the scene look more fitting as an acid trip.
Tear Jerker: Say all you want about the movie, but the song "Never Too Far" is beautiful, especially considering what inspires it in the film. The 9/11 attacks having happened shortly before the film's release certainly helped (Carey even rerecorded the song combined with her older song "Hero" to raise money for the victims' families).
Took the Bad Film Seriously: Mariah Carey really does her best to make the film work despite the poor writing and direction. The scene where Billie says how she dreams of being successful enough to make her mother regret leaving her in particular is genuinely poignant and shows what she could have done with a better film.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: To many viewers, Dice comes off less like a turbulent but fundamentally decent guy, and more like a controlling, emotionally manipulative, and borderline abusive creep.
Vindicated by History: Not so much the movie itself, which is still widely agreed to be bad, but more people have since warmed up to the film's soundtrack, including Mariah Carey fans creating the hashtag #justiceforglitter seventeen years after both the movie and soundtrack were released. Whether this will work, only time will tell. Mariah Carey herself expressed she was disappointed with the movie, but liked that fans had come to appreciate the soundtrack, saying the main reason she rarely performed songs from Glitter was because she thought no one liked them.
Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: Considering how much of a dick Dice comes off as, it's hard to buy his and Billie's apparent reconciliation.
WTH, Costuming Department?: Even though the hair, makeup and especially the wardrobe is supposed to represent 1983, anyone can see that the majority of it reflects the early 2000's, showing a strong sense of laziness and that it's always better to have too many references to the period (a la The Wedding Singer) than too few. A specific moment of a questionable outfit was what Louise wore to the party, which looked like pajamas.

YMMV / Glitter

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