I went on my own to see ‘Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft – The Tour Live in 3D’ in the Odeon, today, which was directed by James Cameron. The music was good, which I knew it would be, but the behind-scenes footage and the coverage of the audience, which so often can be a bit gnarly, was, on this occasion, exceptionally good. And the stage performance by Billie Eilish and her interaction with her audience, was exceptional.
The Billie Eilish film was one of the best ‘music’ films that I have ever seen, which I suspect is due to the creative collaboration between Billie Eilish and James Cameron, which is actually something they talk about within the film. Mostly, the film is taken-up with the actual performance by Billie, which is essentially a full concert, albeit possibly with footage from various venues, but that is not super-evident. And the camera-work is very clearly evident under the direction of James, where a lot of focus is on the dynamic interaction between Billie and her audience, who have intense emotional reactions and join-in with full voices in the singing, as they are actively invited to do so.
More audience reaction is available outside of the concert venues, and there is significant backstage interaction between Billie and James, where she talks very sensitively about what it means for her to be a successful, young, female performer in the music business of today, and the difficulties she has in feeling attractive, given the demands of the industry to be more revealing or sensually provocative in her performance.
She also talks very endearingly about the relationship she has with her brother, and the difficulties she has with his absence on this tour, and talks about why she interacts so much with her audience, given her own younger days as a fan of others who came before her.
Mark Kermode does not appear to have reviewed this film.
Needless to say, I loved this film and scored it very highly at 9.5, whilst ‘IMDB’ gave it 7.6, and the ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ score was 9.3 (93%).