I know the Swifties think Taylor invented concert documentaries, and are pissed Beyoncé is trying to steal Tay-Tay’s ideas. I’m sorry to disappoint y’all, but the Queen Bee has been producing concert docs for a long time now. Really good, immersive concert docs. And I’m even more sorry to report to the Swifties that Renaissance is the best concert doc of 2023. Don’t worry though, Taylor tweens: Beyoncé has 10 years on Swift, who will hopefully learn from the best and make an artistic concert masterpiece like the one I just saw 10 years from now.
Renaissance is Beyoncé’s latest album, and the doc is about her tour promoting the music from that album. These songs feature post 1970s black music, house music, and ball culture, meant for everyone to celebrate themselves after the uneasiness coming out of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Beyoncé intercuts various performances/costumes from multiple performances on the tour, with footage of the tour’s inspirations, conception, and execution. And, hella great music as well.
The way the concert footage is edited in Renaissance is something I’ve never seen before. Instead of trying to hide the fact that it was shot over multiple cities, nights, and dates, the footage is cut together to give documentary viewers a comprehensive view of how the shows went. We cut, with each awesome Bey dance move, to a new costume, new set, new city, sometimes seconds apart. Sometimes the doc will call out a specific show, where the power goes out, and then go back to fusing the performances together once the power goes back on. And yet, it doesn’t feel disorienting: instead, the movie audience gets a new way to see this Beyoncé tour, making the movie a complementary experience to dancing in the Bey Hive at one of the tour stops. It’s another lesson in how the Queen Bee isn’t just some vapid sexpot popstar: she’s an artist and entrepreneur, really putting in the work to think about how each piece of this tour is meant to work in the medium it’s meant to be in. In between the truly spectacular dancing and singing (I certainly got a little hot and bothered) Beyoncé is also telling a story with how she put this doc together, like all documentaries, even concert docs, should.
And that’s why Renaissance isn’t some pure entertainment soulless cash grab. It’s going for something more interesting and artistic, like it’s creator. Being a more dancey high energy album, Beyoncé leaves the high of a concert performance to then give us little behind the scenes footage of how Renaissance’s music and performances came together. Like Homecoming, we get some insight into some music/cultural movements that inspired Mrs. Carter that maybe aren’t as well known as they should be: in this case, ball culture, a celebration of black LGBTQIA individuals like Kevin Aviance. But instead of just giving us a history lesson, Beyoncé gets more intimate and personal in this doc, talking about her “Uncle Jonny” who made all her costumes growing up, because that was his safe space to be himself during a time where being gay and black was scary. The stuff with her daughter Blue Ivy is the most riveting, as we see the Queen Bee turn into a mom, comforting Blue from vitriolic online critics while giving her daughter a glimpse of the work ethic needed to become a great performer in her own right. These little insights paint a picture of Beyoncé as she probably wants to be seen: a hard working, brilliant, supporter of the arts and music, and a great mom, constantly in conversation with her past, present, and future. And just when Beyoncé might be oversharing backstage, BAM! We’re back on tour in Houston in the sexiest bee costume I’ve ever seen dancing a tribute to her Bey Hive! Like the concert’s themselves, the Renaissance movie has a flow as well, that gives us a complete picture of this, 42 year old Beyoncé putting on her latest magnificent showcase of all of her talents, inside and out.
I don’t think we’ll ever see someone like Beyoncé Knowles Carter again, anytime soon. She’s made of an unholy concoction of raw talent, cultural history, and insane work ethic the likes of which comes along once every 50-100 years. I for one, am happy to be along for the ride, ready to break my soul out of my body the minute I see the most perfect smile I think that has ever smiled before.
