Madonna's Confessions II short film is her boldest (and best) work in years — and all she did was...

EW breaks down the celebrityfilled &34;Confessions II&34; film and what it means for Madonna's future as the world's foremost pop star. Madonna's Confessions II short film is her boldest (and best) work in years — and all she did was tell the truth EW breaks down the celebrityfilled &34;Confessions II&34; film and what it means for Madonna's future as the world's foremost pop star. :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/JoeyNolfiBiophotof93a23298bdd47ba9c13f53815fc469b.jpg) Joey Nolfi Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at .

EW breaks down the celebrity-filled "Confessions II" film and what it means for Madonna's future as the world's foremost pop star.

Madonna's Confessions II short film is her boldest (and best) work in years — and all she did was tell the truth

EW breaks down the celebrity-filled "Confessions II" film and what it means for Madonna's future as the world's foremost pop star.

Joey Nolfi

Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at *. *Since 2016, his work at EW includes RuPaul's Drag Race video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more.

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June 8, 2026 5:50 p.m. ET

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Madonna in 'Confessions II — The Film' ahead of her new album. Credit:

Madonna/YouTube

- EW breaks down Madonna's six-song short film ahead of her *Confessions II *album release.

- The film is a powerful meditation on the icon's legacy and looks ahead to her future.

- Sabrina Carpenter, Julia Garner, and more appear in celebrity guest spots that cut deeper than the average cameo.

At the top of her new, aptly titled short film *Confessions II**,* Madonna whispers what at first might land as an obvious summary of her four-decade career.

“I can be whoever I want to be,” the 67-year-old queen of reinvention coos while seated at the center of a secluded room, expressing herself behind a closed door. Moments later, chaos — and an army of camera-toting, masked glamazons — descends, capturing her every move from countless angles. In this moment (as it’s done for 40 years), the very nature of who Madonna *wants* to be fractures off into a flurry of tiny shards, morphing in intent and intensity depending on whoever’s watching on the other side of the lens.

Released Monday as part of the ongoing promotional tour leading up to her long-awaited album, *Confessions II* (itself a sequel to her 2005 opus *Confessions on a Dance Floor*), *Confessions II — The Film* is more than just a flashy, star-studded commercial for Madonna’s new material; it’s a powerful meditation on her legacy, her future, and how the world sees her as she reaches a new dawn in a storied life that’s largely played out in arenas beyond her control. From the sex-positive powerhouse of 1992’s *Erotica* to the titular social revolutionary on *Madame X* in 2019, Madonna typically (and carefully) tells us who she *wants* to be with each release. But, by the same token, she’s a pop culture entity rarely afforded the luxury of simply existing as *who* she is, on her own terms — as it’s the public that has, often, decided for her.

*Confessions II — The Film* isn’t an assertion of power over that reality (Madonna spent plenty of time doing that already) as much as it is a self-aware observation* *and acceptance* *of her standing in history, investigating what really matters to her life and legacy. If you believed headlines in the ‘90s, Madonna was too young to be as bold as she was while igniting conversations about sex, intimacy, and LGBTQ rights; now, per ageist detractors, she’s too old to have any perspective at all. And yet, they all show up with a camera, wanting to exact their pound of flesh in the public square.

As the film transitions to its next act, Madonna whispers the lines of *Confessions II* buzz track “I Feel So Free,” admitting, “Honestly, I wish I could be like other people, and just not care. That’s why I like to go dancing. Safety in numbers.” The album’s next tune, “Good For the Soul,” then kicks in, while Madonna traverses a minefield of dancers with lasers firing from their behinds. At the same time, a blinding ray of solar energy emanates from the star’s loins, completing a comical interplay of well-known idioms. Madonna at once dodges the green lasers as if they’ll trip a sensor (essentially traversing a barrage of opinions — after all, they’re like a--holes: everybody has one), but she’s also world-renowned as a goddess. One might even say fans think the blinding sun shines out of her ass. But, who’s to say?

Though she’s often criticized for her being provocative, one thing Madonna can’t be accused of is cutting corners in pursuit of superficial thrills. And yet, as she says in the next line of the film, people still think “dance music *is* superficial,” but counters it with a stimulating thought: “The dance floor is not just a place. It’s a threshold. A ritualistic space where movement replaces language.”

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Across her many eras and numerous career evolutions, the unifying thread throughout them all is that, whether it’s “Vogue,” “Music,” or “Hung Up,” people — and the world — *move* to Madonna, whether it’s at a club or amid a cultural shift under her influence.

In the past, Madonna has been the target of criticism for how she’s engaged with up-and-coming artists that clearly owe a debt to her impact — namely Lady Gaga, whom Madonna criticized in 2012 as “reductive” in an infamous interview, after many noted Gaga’s “Born This Way” contained sonic similarities to Madonna’s seminal 1989 tune “Express Yourself.” Over the years, the pair patched things up (they even posed in a loving embrace after Gaga won her first Oscar in 2019). In *Confessions II,* Madonna leans even *more* into embracing artists who walk in her footsteps, as she and pop starlet Sabrina Carpenter join forces for a rendition of “Bring Your Love” midway through the short film.

Carpenter has, like Madonna, weathered a storm of sexist criticism for her recent output — particularly from critics who don’t understand that presentation doesn’t equal advocation, with regard to the star’s tongue-in-cheek, satirical *Man’s Best Friend* album cover that saw her bending down on all fours in front of a faceless man. On “Bring Your Love,” their trajectories meet in the middle of — where else — the dance floor, as Madonna coaxes Carpenter’s own confessions out of her, shrouding her in a protective shield of a lyrical promise of endurance, despite the daggers hurled.

Madonna avoids lasers in 'Confessions II — The Film'.

Madonna/YouTube

In another one of the sequence’s clever scenes, Madonna literally morphs into actress Julia Garner as she dances in the crowd. Garner is set to play Madonna in her long-gestating, self-directed biographical film, which will see Madonna take further creative control over how her life’s story is presented to the world for the first time in scripted-film form. It’s a nod not only to the project itself, but to the trust Madonna has placed in the Emmy-winning actress, and in us as consumers; this is not just an actress, but the creative vessel through which her story will thrive. The baton isn’t *passed* as much as it’s *entrusted* to artists who directly (Garner) and indirectly (Carpenter) walk in Madonna’s light.

After nearly half a century of titillating pop culture to the brink of its understanding, the most shocking thing Madonna can do, at this point, is be honest about all of this. She nods to her formative years on the New York City nightlife scene in a *Confessions II* sequence soundtracked by album cut “Danceteria,” named after the famed club where she met her longtime friend Debi Mazar (who also cameos) and honed her artistic identity in dance music. In the short film, she also crosses paths with a wealth of talent from across the entertainment spectrum, who all join together in a collective groove inside a grimy bathroom, including model Kate Moss; actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Richard E. Grant, Odessa A’zion, and Gwendoline Christie; musicians Shygirl, Arca, and Honey Dijon, and performance artist-dancer Prince Lyons, among others. All of this to say, every corner of Hollywood has danced with (or to) Madonna’s beat at some point.

But, the essence of Madonna’s “safety in numbers” mantra boils down to a key element at the end of *Confessions II.* After kicking, punching, and smashing through a screen during a performance of “Read My Lips,” Madonna finds herself back inside the darkly shrouded room in which the short film began.

Madonna, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Julia Garner in 'Confessions II'.

Madonna/YouTube (2)

Now, instead of hunting her down, the hive of faceless, camera-carrying leeches wind down, distracted by other fleetingly enticing vices as they kiss, suck down champagne, and devour bananas — the peels from which they’ve already thrown, waiting (cameras out) for Madonna to slip. And yet they’re still endlessly drawn to the soft glow of Madonna on the TV screen before them.

The film then shifts to show the only unmasked figure in the bunch, revealing that Madonna’s daughter, Lourdes Leon, has emerged through the crowd with the only perspective that matters: “Cut, bitch,” she commands, staring into the camera as the screen goes black under a direct order from Madonna’s flesh and blood, the only meaningful driving presence in the icon’s life.

Leon’s birth in 1996 marked a significant shift in lyrical tone for Madonna, whose next album, 1998’s genre-redefining *Ray of Light*, engaged with existential themes of mortality, spirituality, and the greater cosmos that dovetailed with Madonna’s newfound role as a mother. From gently singing soft-sided affection for Leon on “Little Star” to adopting a reformed outlook on life on “Nothing Really Matters,” Madonna’s creative output has hinged on the latter note for the better part of 30 years: “Nothing really matters. Love is all we need.”

Sabrina Carpenter in Madonna's 'Confessions II — The Film'.

Madonna/YouTube

For someone with as tectonic of an impact on life and culture as Madonna, the phrase might register as a tad cliché. But, in *Confessions II*, watching Madonna’s lineage takes the reins grounds it in a reality that’s easier to feel when it’s clear to see.

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By the final shot, it’s evident that “safety in numbers,” for Madonna, means she has nothing left to prove. Whether she (or those living in her influence) are swallowed up by a crowd and spat out the other end, Madonna simply “is.” She endures as one woman — *the* woman — running the show. You can dance with her or against her. Either way, her music will play on and on, whether she’s staring down the lens or watching from above.

*Confessions II* is out July 3. Watch *Confessions II — The Film* above.

Original Article on Source

Source: "EW Music"

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Source: Music

Published: June 9, 2026 at 01:00AM on Source: RON MAG

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