Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)
I've said it umpteen times, but I hate the musical biopic. Too often I find that genre reductive. Its portrayal of these larger-than-life stars always ends up falling short of the magnetism and charisma that they often possess to uphold the position that they do. To capture the hearts and minds of many.
It is why I love a concert film. These films aren't concerned with the play-by-play of a person's life, trying to whittle down a human being's story into a couple of hours. Instead, it focuses on the few hours that they spend on stage, and in this realness, the product is often more intimate.
The film doesn't have to be concerned with re-creating what made these artists so special, what made them connect with hundreds of thousands. That energy is already there. You can see why they are so special, why so many people are moved by the artistry on offer. That is why, in biopics, when these concert scenes are depicted, they feel empty, as they will never capture the hold that the artist really has over the people in the crowd.
It seems as though both Eilish and Cameron are aware of this fact. Not only is this an intimate portrayal of Billie Eilish herself (by the nature of the production of her concert, it would be, as it's simply her for the most part on stage), but also in how the film chooses to be a sweeping portrayal of the venue itself. You feel a part of the crowd. The crowd is as important to this film as Eilish.
It takes a moment to get used to this, to be intercutting so much between fans screaming their hearts out and then back to Eilish in a concert movie. In lesser concert movies, this could be seen as emotionally manipulative, where the film shows you how emotionally provoked audience members are and thus implies you should feel the same way. However, that's not the case here. It is more so an act of immersion, to make you feel what it's like to be in that room and specifically what it's like for Eilish to be in that room.
Once you settle into how this film operates in immersing you in that space, with stellar sound design that again uses the crowd's effects as much as Billie's vocals to make you feel as if you're there, you begin to understand why this film was constructed this way. The interstitials, learning about Billie's process and her creative insight into how she wants the production to feel, are very clear, more so than most artists of her size, about how much she cares about the concert experience and the individual fan experience.
I've personally always had a lot of adoration for Eilish. She's a stellar musician, and also her approach to creativity I've always found kind of inspiring. If you're reading this, I highly recommend you check out the doc that she made, called The World's a Little Blurry. It's one of my favourite films of that year. She just seems like a genuine person who cares about her artistry. Not only is that coming through in the concert itself, as an avid concertgoer, I've never seen a crowd that participatory on a scale this size, and that's even more impressive given that she's the only person on stage for most of the time. It's also in the way that she chooses to construct the visual language around her art.
She cares about the overall experience that a person is getting, from the concerts to her videos to her music. Even to the way that she styles herself, which is touched upon in the film, she is in the interest of doing what makes her happy, not trying to appease the masses but instead doing what is right to her. It's all coming from a genuine place, and that even comes through in this film, making the viewer at home feel as if they are a part of that experience.
Obviously, I was even more excited with James Cameron being attached to this. The work that was put into the technology that they developed specifically for this film is insane. The rigs that they are able to use, being so small and getting 3D out of them, is wild. It's probably up there with the best compositions of a concert film I've ever seen.
Obviously, with it happening live, there's very little room for error. Everything has to be very precise, and the cameras also have to be placed in a way that isn't going to interrupt the concert experience. It all just looked seamless. Eilish and Cameron killed it with this, a truly special immersive experience, and has made me more of a fan of them.
Side note: Eilish might actually be the most beautiful person I've ever seen. There are times where she will look into the camera and I was transfixed by her eyes omg