Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry (2021) - February 26, 2021

[Britnasty]

4/5

I went into this documentary very much being the old man on the porch screaming at the kids to get off my lawn. I don’t get Billie Eilish’s appeal, her music is strange to me and I was flabbergasted at her rise to fame with that brand of whisper singing. I’m 32, not exactly her target audience but I know people OLDER than me who love her. So I sat down to give this a shot, open minded. I really just wanted to understand the appeal.

I came out of it actually liking her as a person and really respecting her drive and creative process. This documentary excels in so many ways. First off, it’s refreshing to see a “child star” (I put it in quotations because she started much later than the usual child stars we think of but she’s still a child) with parents who are actively nurturing to her and protecting her from being taken advantage of. We have seen so many child stars be taken advantage of, exploited and suffer as adults with the ramifications from their childhoods that their parents disregarded. Secondly, loved seeing her creative process with Finneas. It’s clear those two have a very interconnected bond and are like yin and yang. Fascinating to see those two craft her album in their childhood bedroom. Finally, her bond with her fans is genuine and I think to her detriment at times. You can tell, being a teenager, she goes through the same things as her fans so when you have fans dumping their emotions on her during the meet and greets, Billie clearly takes them onto herself and it’s manifesting inside her in a negative way.

It’s a fascinating look at the rise of pop phenom. Going from tumblr to selling out arenas and amphitheater’s in a matter of 8 months is a lot and this shows it in its raw form.

Now let me go blast “Therefore I Am”.