Can a Gen X reviewer enjoy a Gen Z screening of a Billie Eilish concert?
Everything that would usually annoy a reviewer in a screening happened at this premiere. And yet, I enjoyed the experience overall. Let me explain.
Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) is a colorful concert movie filmed during the UK and US legs of the musician’s tour last year, featuring songs from the titular album and her previous EPs.
Naturally, the screening was a delight to Eilish’s fans, especially her Gen Z batchmates. I, however, am technically not a fan (and definitely not Gen Z), but I did know several songs of hers prior to seeing the show, which were not Birds of a Feather.
This is not a biopic, nor is it a documentary. Occasionally, the concert is intercut with nonlinear behind-the-scenes footage following Eilish prior to the show, and then some time after.
Constructing-Deconstructing
It begins with a fast time-lapse of the stage’s construction and ends with a time-lapse of its deconstruction. I’m not sure if this is the first time I’ve seen timelapse rendered in 3D, but it does look mesmerizing. The first song is Chihiro, a song about being unseen in a relationship and named after the main character in the Ghibli animation Spirited Away. It’s a smooth set without much fanfare on stage, a good opening for what woud generally describe the entire show.
I can’t make a rundown of the set list. I’m not that familiar with her discography. Suffice it to say that tracks from the album Hit Me Hard and Soft were mostly there. Lunch, Wildflower, Bittersuite, and the powerful The Greatest. The stage, like her instrumentations, is minimal, lit in monocolor per song.
However, songs from outside this album had a stronger impact on me, in terms of mixing up her genres and instrumentations. She explains that hip-hop is one of her main influences. From the midtempo There’s NDA/ Therefore I am, to the surging Happier Than Ever, to the acoustic Your Power, to the electropop Oxytocin. I particularly enjoyed the set on Bad Guy. So did the audience at the screening, who frequently rushed to the orchestra section of the theater to mosh pit at the base of the screen.
Of course, there are the show stoppers like the meme-theme What Was I Made For? and her breakout single Ocean Eyes. Those deserved applause, even if it was a film screening of a concert. Eilish has this strong emotional connection with her fans, which she talks about in one segment, how important they are to her. Her music – vibey, moody, most of the time lilting in mezzo-soprano or breathy falsetto – speak of complex, multilayered emotions that Eilish translates through lyric and vocals.
The show ended with her most massive hit, Birds of a Feather, confetti show, and all.
3D or not 3D, Cameron or not Cameron
While the show was envisioned by Eilish from the start, it is a collaboration with blockbuster director James Cameron. Honestly, I don’t know how much James Cameron, the director, contributed to this movie, since he did admit in one scene that it is a Billie show. Cameron is credited as a co-editor of the film; maybe behind-the-scenes footage that humanized Billie in terms of what she thinks about her music or how she dresses (or not dresses) up, and what her fans mean to her, was Cameron’s idea. I’m not sure if showing the film in 3D added to the immersion, certainly seeing Billie up close using tiny hand-held cameras on- and under- stage already provided that immersive cinematic experience. Maybe the 3D helped.
Billie does mention that her brother and frequent collaborator Finneas is missing from the show. Apparently, this is because during the tour, Finneas was busy building up his own career. But he does appear in the concert towards the end, and the siblings perform a couple of songs.
Sit down or Stand up?
What did I find annoying at the screening? For starters, the constant intercut to show audience reaction during the first three songs. It kind of makes sense later on, when Billie is explaining this relationship she intends to keep with her fans. And when some fans are given screen time to share their love of Billie and her songs. But it really was so jarring to me, because in a concert, you don’t pay to watch the audience. But since this is also a film, reaction shots are normal. IT was confusing at the beginning.
Apart from this thing about intercuts to the audience, my screening’s audience danced at what was the orchestra, used their phones, used the flash lights of their phones, and talked loudly even while Billie was talking at her concert or during the documentary intercut portions. Barely heard her speak. As a movie, it was a terrible experience.
The 360º stage isn’t a new thing, either. I have seen a better 360 staging most recently in TWICE’s This Is For concert in Bulacan (north of Manila, Philippines.) But the point of conducting Eilish’s show in 360º has the same philosophy explained by Twice: to move them physically closer to the fans. And that was evidently effective from the many audience reaction shots of the lucky ones in VIP Standing.
Gen Z show
But this GenZ energy to just go and sing along and dance in front of the screen was so refreshing, more than annoying reminded me that it was mainly a concert, the closest thing to an actual concert of an artist who, for many reasons, cannot physically hold a show in this city at this moment. Of course, the fans will sing and dance inside the theater. Of course, the fans will jump, shout, or cry.
At some point, it was no longer a film screening, and the reviewer in me just went with the flow. That was definitely a vibe to experience. A concert featuring Billie Eilish’s soothing vocals was made more intimate by the immersive cinematic presentation.
The movie will get a B-. The concert gets a B. The experience was an A.
Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D is out now exclusively in SM Cinemas (tickets here), presented by Paramount Pictures.
Link and thumbnail courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
