Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry (2021) Movie Review!

An intimate look at the singer-songwriter’s journey, navigating life on the road, on stage, and at home, while creating her debut album.

Billie Eilish is currently one of the biggest stars, I’ve been a huge fan of her’s since she started. This documentary is unlike any documentary about a celebrity it’s a coming of age story from when Billie was at the age 16 (when R.J. Cutler started filming her before her success) to where she is now as one of the biggest stars in the world. I feel like what I have always liked about Billie Eilish is that she comes off as one of the most real celebrities, she genuinely cares for her fans and audience and when you actually sit down and listen to her speak it’s quite impressive. That documentary proves that point even more, it shows a very human side to Billie, as I said earlier it’s a coming of age story and a truly beautiful one as well. You learn almost everything about Billie to the point where it feels like you are having a conversation with someone you listening to her tell you about her life. Billie talks about her Tourette’s syndrome and how she has suicidal thoughts but she expresses that through words rather than actions. One of the strongest things aspects is Billie’s beautiful relationship with her family, each of her family members taught her something for instance her mom taught her about songwriting, her dad taught her how to play the ukulele and the piano finally her brother produced her and was her songwriting cohort. The interactions between her and her family is seriously some of the most beautiful interactions I’ve seen in a long time, they all are there for each other no matter what and it’s truly a beautiful thing. As the documentary goes on you learn more and more about Billie and how she got to where she is now and you as the viewer get completely invested into it. A lot of things a lot of documentaries about celebrities don’t really do at all is show a human side to the celebrity they are talking about, a lot of the time it feels like we don’t learn much about their personality or how they are as people. Sure we are given information and told they are “nice and incredible” but we never see that at all. With Billie Eilish The World’s A Little Blurry we get to see Billie’s actions, how Billie is as a person, how Billie reacts to certain situations and how she thinks and feels, it’s truly refreshing to actually see something completely different. And by the end of the film it feels like you know every single thing about Billie, her personality is truly beautiful, her determination is very inspiring, and her love for her fans and family is truly a beautiful thing. The documentary made me cry at least 3 different times it’s mostly due to Billie’s journey as an artist and just how beautifully made this documentary is, this is the type of filmmaking that really gets me the most. Seeing the life, or lives of a certain person or group of people is truly amazing and inspiring. You also start feeling like you can relate to Billie given how much information you are told, any documentary that can get you to feel relatable to a celebrity and to bring out a human side of them I feel is successful. Overall Billie Eilish The World’s A Little Blurry is masterful, I absolutely recommend you check this one out. It’s definitely one of the highlights so far this year!

10/10 A+

The United States Vs Billie Holiday (2021) Movie Review!

Follows Holiday during her career as she is targeted by the Federal Department of Narcotics with an undercover sting operation led by black Federal Agent Jimmy Fletcher, with whom she had a tumultuous affair.

The United States Vs Billie Holiday is the most frustrating movie so far this year, this is truly a movie that could have been really great but so much is holding it back from being good. It goes without saying but Andra Day gives an incredible performance, she captures the charisma and star power that Billie Holiday had really well. Andra Day has so much control and combine that with her very powerful singing voice, you truly got yourself a fantastic role. Speaking of which I also really liked the music, the songs are all very well song and truly have a beautiful feel to them. It’s just such a shame the rest of the movie has to be very below average, none of the other roles stood out at all, the writing was way too safe and felt like a nothing special about it biopic and Lee Daniel’s direction was all over the place. The writing feels like it’s trying to do more than be a biopic and completely fails at it. As I said earlier the direction was a mess, at times the direction has it’s moments but those are far and few in between. It’s frustrating because there are a few really strong moments where it shows that the movie does shine and does bring in some powerful scenes. The problem is those scenes are overshadowed by a majority of the movie that just doesn’t seem to know what it wants. It’s a shame because Billie Holiday’s life is very interesting and I just wish the movie did a far better job. I wouldn’t go as far to say that the movie is bad, it’s just one that is incredibly below average.

5/10 C

Sundance Review : Judas And The Black Messiah (2021)

The story of Fred Hampton, Chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, and his fateful betrayal by FBI informant William O’Neal.

Judas And The Black Messiah was definitely one of the biggest highlights of Sundance 2021 hands down. This film was also one of my most anticipated films of 2021 and it does not disappoint at all! There’s so much to talk about here so Iet’s get started, first off all of the performances were fantastic. But the standouts are definitely Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield and Dominique Fishback. All of which do an incredible job in their roles, Daniel Kaluuya captures the spirit of Fred Hampton. How he acts, how he felt, how he thought about certain situations, his relationships with other people. It’s all there and really makes the film that much more powerful, LaKeith Stanfield also does a fantastic job with playing William O’Neil in fact I feel this is one of Stanfield’s best performances so far in his career, like how Daniel Kaluuya captures the spirit of Fred Hampton. Stanfield captures the spirit of William O’Neil incredibly well it’s like you are being thrown back in the past and witnessing events take place all over again. Speaking of which I feel that’s what this film does an incredible job, it feels like a huge time capsule and a truly fantastic one. It captures the moments that will make you angry in the best way possible, mostly due to how incredibly well written this film is, given the events that happened and just how beautifully made this film is. Shaka King should really be proud of himself because this is so far one of the best directed films I’ve seen so far this year, he captures every important moment about Fred Hampton and what made him who he was. Shaka King also captures the relationships that Hampton had and why he is an important figure. The last 20 minutes of the film will make you angry and rightfully so, because of what happened to Fred Hampton. The last 20 minutes are powerful and horrifying they don’t sugarcoat anything at all, the film doesn’t hold back at all which is very important when you talk about films like Judas And The Black Messiah. Overall Judas And The Black Messiah is a fantastic film, it’s wonderfully crafted and a very powerful film that as I said before will make you so angry. I can’t wait to see what Shaka King does next! Make sure to see this film on HBO Max when it comes out tomorrow February 12th!

10/10 A+

Safety (2020)

The story of Ray-Ray McElrathbey, a freshman football player for Clemson University, who secretly raised his younger brother on campus after his home life became too unsteady.

Safety is another one of those inspirational stories that really don’t have anything new to bring to the table, the true story itself is very inspiring and I definitely recommend looking up the actual story. The movie however at times feels like a huge chore to sit through it’s 122 minutes long which it honestly did not need to be. Jay Reeves and the rest of the cast do a fine enough job given that the script they got was nothing really too special. A lot of the film just felt way too safe (no pun intended) it was your basic inspirational movie cliches that any viewer can easily recognize. There are some genuine heartfelt moments that do work pretty well, but those take a lot of patience to get to, with that said the movie definitely isn’t bad. It’s just a movie that I don’t think I’ll ever watch again, it’s one of those Disney+ movies that could have easily been a Disney channel original but they decided to put it on Disney+. If it sounds like your type of movie check it out, otherwise don’t rush to watch it.

6/10 C+