Earlier this month, The New York Times-produced documentary “Framing Britney Spears,” which follows pop icon Britney Spears’s questionable conservatorship, which saw her lose the freedom to manage her own affairs and finances twelve years ago has dominated the cultural conversation. Anyone who might have believed the dedicated online #FreeBritney movement to be a bunch of crazed superfan conspiracy theorists will have to think twice: through clear and careful reporting, the documentary suggests that there is something deeply troubling going on with regards to her father’s control over her life (court hearings to try and have him removed as a conservator are ongoing).

 This documentary is well organized as it creates a careful and precise timeline of Spears’s rise to worldwide fame, the subsequent obsession with her that soared out of control, and the painful public breakdown that led to the controversial conservatorship in 2008. In the future, more comprehensive documentaries will surely be made about Spears, but alongside now-poignant footage of her as a charismatic, engaged young star, and clear, well-informed interviewees, this one is utterly gripping.

Perhaps the most gripping segments of the doc are interviews with former assistant Felicia Culotta. Having known Britney from the age of five, Culotta was asked by her mother to chaperone her to a work meeting when she first signed a record deal and ended up becoming a worldwide sensation in her early career. She describes Spears’s working-class background, and how, when she first began to taste success, she drove around the town where she grew up handing out $100 bills at Christmas. Culotta stated, “I wanted to remind people of why we fell in love with her in the first place,” when asked why she took part in the doc.

The documentary explores several instances where Spears was over scrutinized by the media and held culpable for negative press about her sexuality; many news interview clips are shown where journalists essentially blame her for being too sexy for her audiences. It is certainly difficult to depict the most shocking parts of the doc as it is disheartening to watch how Spears was mistreated time after time. Was it the press conference where she’s asked if she’s a virgin? The woman who goes on TV and declares she wants to shoot her because she’s corrupting her children? How critics suggest, Justin Timberlake weaponized his “Cry Me A River” era to imply Spears was to blame for their break-up? Several heart-wrenching moments also show how unhappy and uncomfortable Spears was with the press. Clips of paparazzi hounding her for a picture in the midst of clearly distressing custody negotiations for her children and the judgemental open season on whether she was an unfit mother are just some of the endless cruelty Spears endured.

There are serious questions the doc brings up as well. Why is a high-functioning woman, who has performed sell-out tours and a successful Las Vegas residency, under a legal arrangement intended for people who are ‘incompetent’? As well as why did her father’s legal team say that the conservatorship should be thought of as a ‘hybrid business model’?

Nonetheless, the documentary has shed light on Spears’ legal situation. Overall, the feedback from the doc has been overwhelmingly positive as fans of Spears are now riled up and are standing with her during her conservatorship battle.