Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) (dir. James Cameron and Billie Eilish)
The poster for Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) tell us “Billie Eilish and James Cameron reinvent the concert experience.” Look, I know Jim is not exactly wanting for ego, but I can’t help but feel like that’s a slight exaggeration. Although it does say “concert” and not “concert film”, because, as we have established recently, that can take some real working to accomplish. Hyperbole notwithstanding, Cameron and Eilish, both credited as director here, have made a slick and pulsating cinematic rendering of Eilish’s most recent tour that offers just enough of the universe around Eilish to make it special and not so much so as to suffocate the potency and even the joy that can be found within her admittedly angsty, brooding music and a big, loud pop concert.
Hit Me Hard and Soft was, in my 40-year-old man opinions, Eilish’s cumulative best work to date. Although it is hard to beat “Bad Guy” for singular wow factor, and I do think her Barbie track, “What Was I Made For”, is one of the finest Oscar winners for Best Original Song. Released in 2024, it marked such a creative and artistic step forward that she became somebody to actively root for in a musical landscape that is deprived of individual personalities with their own distinct point of view. A world tour obviously makes sense as does a film of it. And roping in James Cameron during a break from Avatar post-production is such a baller coup and his dorky admiration for her is charming to witness, sitting opposite her on a couch with a big ol’ camera rigged to his shoulder. Cameron is such a deeply sincere person that I really want to believe he’s genuine.
There is less of the behind the stage footage than maybe the marketing had suggested, but I appreciated that her young fans may see this and grow an appreciation for the effort that goes into bringing their favourite popstars to the world. Beyond just thanking the band on stage, which you hope every performer does, I appreciated her run-throughs of the under-stage area giving a brief moment of attention to an assortment of technicians and tradesmen who all help Eilish put this extravagant show on. And having Cameron there behind and even in front of the camera at times gives me a little bit of hope that Eilish’s fans might want to understand more about who their favourite musician chooses to give her admiration towards.
And, ultimately, it’s how those fans will receive this that probably is the most important part here. And given my Tuesday evening public screening (which cost $29 for the ticket + $1.50 for the glasses just by the way!!!) became a 4D experience, I get that they were satisfied. “Come on everyone, get down here and dance”, one of them shouted about four songs in and by film’s end there were about 20 of the ‘youth’ dancing in a circle to Eilish’s massive “Birds of a Feather” concert closer. Similar to Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, dancing is permitted and even encouraged. Let them have fun, I say! Much to the chagrin, of course, to the older folks who were actually seated in the front row and who left quite early on. But as evidenced by the rest of the crowd, Eilish’s appeal extends beyond young girls and queer boys who we are routinely showed up close screaming, crying and thankfully not throwing up. I think if more people saw it, they’d appreciate her craftsmanship, her on-stage presence, and the attitude that she brings to the live performance and her relationship with fame and her fans.
I am not entirely sure I felt Cameron’s influence on the film’s production beyond the use of 3D, some of which is actually a bit distracting—although I am very willing to bet that that was more a response of having to sit so close (row 2, thanks; this was not screened in the biggest of cinemas at Hoyts Melbourne Central). Still, all of the lasers and lights and minimal but effective stage mechanics are well captured, with its deep colour palate of blue, red and green providing a lot of images that just work cinematically. Funnily enough, some of its best moments are when Eilish picks up a portable camera and runs around the stadium stage in the round (in the rectangle?) as well as the audience, amplifying her enthusiasm and giving her fans (and maybe even some newcomers) there and here in the cinema some real up-close moments with their idol. Filmed across four nights, Cameron’s biggest influence on the film may actually be the sheer amount of coverage they were able to get from all the angles you could possible expect or hope.
I’m not always a fan of Eilish’s vocal delivery, quiet and often quite low in the mix, which can make it hard to distinguish the (usually very strong) lyricism when played live. Unless you’ve been listening to the songs on repeat for literally years, which I gather most have. But, hey, a middle-aged man with tinnitus is hardly on the priority list of audience members for a gen z rock concert (although I normally would be for any James Cameron 3D movie!). There are moments in Hit Me Hard and Soft—the sapphic-coded “Lunch” and a raunchy guest-collaboration with Charli XCX (albeit via screen) for a couple—that hints that an artist who is getting more and more comfortable and confident with not just different styles of writing and performance, but material that doesn’t have a foot in both worlds of the grown-up she has become and the child star she started out as. They’re some of the movie’s best moments and offer an interesting dichotomy. In a twist, then, so too is “Ocean Eyes”, her debut single from 2015. Go figure, but she’s talented like that!
Those after more about Eilish herself that you cannot glean from her music and the minimal interview sequences should take a look at RJ Cutler’s Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, produced when she was just 17. But unlike that film, Hit Me Hard and Soft is wanting to, yes, give fans a glimpse into her world, but predominantly to show off the skills she has developed in just over a decade. It works.
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