On Friday, May 8, singer Billie Eilish released her movie that highlighted her previous tour. The film was directed by her and James Cameron, and is an immersive experience of a night in her “Hit Me Hard and Soft” tour. Having seen the movie on opening night, there is a lot that can be pointed out.
What Worked
This movie is great for people who did not have the chance to go to Eilish’s tour and want the full experience, or those who want to experience it again. It included how she starts the tour, with her appearing out of a glowing box in the center of the stage, and opening with “CHIHIRO”, a song from her latest album, “HIT ME HARD AND SOFT”. After that, it is the concert put into film.
The movie features the songs from her concert performed in full, with only some being cut short. There are also many shots from the audience, showing you the impact her music has on her fans, especially when hearing it live and feeling the meanings behind the music with the person who made it.
A small touch added to the movie (that I personally was mainly watching it for) was the behind-the-scenes of getting the tour together. Throughout the film, there are clips from an interview of Eilish by Cameron. In this interview, Eilish shared the process of planning what she wanted for the tour, specifically the aesthetic, and what this tour and touring in general mean for her.
She shared how she planned out how she wanted the lights to be displayed and how intense for each song, what colors would fit, etc. She also added the thought process behind her having very few people on the stage with her, and how she got inspiration from her favorite rappers, who typically perform by themself jumping around on stage, and that she has rarely seen a female performer do that.
Behind-the-scenes looks and stories like this are what make the movie so interesting to me. These are things that the average person is not going to know just by a quick Google search of Eilish (unless she previously shared it in an interview) or simply being at the concert.
What Could’ve Been Done Better
As much as I enjoyed seeing the concert performances on the big screen, something that felt very lacking was the amount of behind-the-scenes content.
Yes, the movie is about the tour itself, but expanding on the creative process and everything leading up to the tour would have made it more intriguing. Only a small part of the film actually touched on how everything came to be. It felt like it was added at the last minute as a placeholder that would segue into the next songs.
It would have been nice to see if there was anything that almost made it in, trial and errors before coming up with the final product, how the set list was planned, etc.
Realistically, anyone could easily access moments from the concert. Even if you did not see it live yourself, people were posting highlights all over social media. The movie is definitely engaging and all around a fun time, but a lot of it is content most fans have seen before. This would’ve been a great opportunity to share exclusive content, making it more unique than if I were to just go online and search for concert clips.
Overall Thoughts
Ultimately, the movie is exactly what you think it would be: a look into the tour that Eilish fans have been keeping up with since 2024.
Whether this is a good movie or not really depends on what a fan is expecting out of watching it. If all you want is to enjoy a concert with other Eilish fans, this movie will give you that. If you are going into the movie expecting something beyond that, I wouldn’t get your hopes up.
