I am not Billie Eilish’s target demo for music. I like a lot of what she does, but I tend to admire it from afar and let all the found souls at her concerts share in those beautiful moments together on the big screen. But then I started seeing things. No, not like hallucinating. Like, witnessing a great artistic voice find theirs in another medium. Moviegoers should dig Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour, regardless if you’re a fan of Billie’s music. Billie, I forgive you for stealing the name of your great song from an album I adore. It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay awake when I’m asleep, cause everything is never as it seems.
The filming for the movie was during Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour in Manchester. While going through her show set, we get the classic interspersed talking heads with Billie’s co-director, about her prep for her show, how she’s gonna go on solo without her brother Finneas, and how she feels about her fans. And how her fans feel about her.
Did I forget to mention James Cameron is her co-director? What a badass movie from a badass singer! Billie Eilish brings in Cameron’s Lightstorm Vision to shoot her concert in 3D. What do you think happens when maybe the greatest technical director ever shoots your concert? Electricity! The more intimate inside setting of Co-Op Live let’s Cameron and Eilish plant the cameras all over the stadium to do the best effort to date to make you feel like you’re at THAT show. A few times I would see a hand flash across my screen and look around, only to realize that was a hand left in the movie to put me in that middle upper deck to watch the show from for a few minutes. Boy does this movie shoot its shots. We’re in and out of the crowd, flying around the stage with Billie, near Billie, above Billie, below Billie, smooching with Bille, selfieing with Billie, you name it. When we’re inside a big banger song like Bad Guy or bury a friend, what could have felt like a really good looking video comes alive in the movie theater, as the colors and sound completely overwhelm your senses and transform you from moviewatcher into a piece of the art experience, a rare feat Billie Eilish shows that she has; she isn’t just a great storyteller and singer; she’s a stupendous visual artist too.
Fortunately most of the film is high highs like this. The movie is best delivering technical marvels, and going into how to create something as audacious as this 3D concert film. The little covert middle of the show stuff is always exciting, like witness a magic trick how Billie transfers herself from one stage to another. Ironically the emotional middle that brings her audience to tears is the most inert part of the film: we’re not supposed to visually be dazzled here, but emotionally connect, maybe a change she can try to fix in her next concert film. During that time we get mostly good stuff (the fans talking about here are very sweet reminders of the power of great music, or all the Finneas sequences), with an occasional dabble into smug satisfaction. But then we quickly ramp up again to the big finale, camera flying around, taking us back to that great artistic place only the great artists like Billie Eilish can bring the audience to.
As the concert reaches it’s conclusion, multiple people in my theater jumped out of their seats, feeling that same energy I did. The Hit Me Hard and Soft tour did exactly that for everyone in that theater, in their own ways. Forget Pandora, big Jim. You’re THE GREATEST, and you BIRDS OF A FEATHER can remind everyone: What Was I Made For? And have us all live Happier Than Ever. See Billie Eilish fan’s I’m NOT the bad guy.