Ia typical scene from Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, the documentary’s pop star subject is in the backyard, surrounded by her family. She is filming preliminary stage sketches to show her video team what she wants from her next music video. Eilish’s mother plays the role of Billie, sits at a precisely slanted table and pretends to drink from a glass. “Do not zoom in,” Eilish advises the video team behind the lens. “Do not do something like these bozo fucking filmmakers do.” On the actual video recording, for her song When the Party’s Over, Eilish is the locus of control, making the director look like her gentle deputy. When she leaves the set, she tells her mother and manager that she is directing the rest of her videos herself.
From the professional person (who fixes herself on her live shows) to the personal one (abusing a boyfriend), Eilish is shown to take everything in her stride. The film implicitly argues that this autonomy is the reason why she is as famous as she is. It makes a seductive comparison to Framing Britney Spears, the recent documentary about the millennium pop icon’s struggle for the most basic control over her life. The control of Eilish would probably be seen as a neat conclusion for the Britney era: “Look how things have changed for the better for women in the doll” – but this is probably the beginning of another era of fame, one with its own crushing pressure.
The World’s a Little Blurry contrasts Eilish’s early years in the spotlight with those of Justin Bieber. Their journey from a 12-year-old fan and adoring artist to a new superstar and famous mentor is a dynamic and influential part of the film: Eilish’s mother is moved to tears for the ‘really sad’ Bieber who is not her daughter a does not have a ubiquitous family support system. Katy Perry also appears to offer Eilish mentorship on the ‘strange ride’ of pop fame, another nod to the generation of American pop stars who are apparently destined to peak and crash.
Otherwise, the film is largely domestic. Eilish’s mother is always looking at her, who is often worried and admired. Her father, the unsung hero with his hip outfits and silent wisdom, tells her. (He’s the obvious presence of Jamie Spears, the man behind Britney’s conservatory.) Eilish’s only immediate antagonist is her loving songwriter-producer brother, Finneas, who says he should trick her into writing popular songs – songs which she fears to write, for with popularity comes hatred.
With this emotional backing and increased public awareness of mental health, Eilish can be candid about the highs and lows of her life in a way that frees her from the expectations of perfection that paved the way for the fall of Spears and Bieber. out of grace. Transparency – the kind that many young stars naturally or deliberately carry out on social media – is another way Eilish can stay in control. But it costs her own cost and forces her to consider her brand not only in the real world and in the tabloids, but also online, among her peers, fans and trolls.
“I can not have one moment like ‘I do not want to do this,'” Eilish told her team after someone wrote an Instagram comment saying she was rude during her meeting. “I have to keep smiling, and if I do not, they hate me and think they are terrible.” Moments before, we have seen an exhausted and disoriented Eilish repeatedly pulled back in an ad hoc cattle call with people in the industry and their children. Although her mother quickly admits that they failed her that night, the fact remains: Eilish is chastised – and quickly – for not being perfect. Questions hang in the air: how far will this negativity spread and what will be the consequences?
Eilish’s debut album gave birth to her the first artist in the 21st century to have an American No. 1 record. There is no precedent for her as the first digital indigenous pop superstar. Her struggle for control may not be rooted in fighting evildoers in the record industry, but in the persistent anxiety and awareness of online abuse and the constant tension because it is misinterpreted. The World’s a Little Blurry is 150 minutes long: Eilish is caught between the fact that she cannot escape from documentation and that is the only way she knows how to live and work. In that sense, little has changed. Despite the stability and self-direction of Eilish, the unchanged examination of young women means that she has the same broad difficulty as Spears.
And control and radical transparency can do just as much. If anyone inquires about Eilish’s label whether it’s wise for the singer to take a spoken anti-drug position – if she’s experimenting when she’s older and is ‘dragged’ (criticized by fans), Eilish’s mother pushes back: she stay true to who Billie is should be enough now. Eilish replies, ‘Well, she did. She has a point. ‘She knows it’s not enough for young superstars to live authentically in the present. They must also work five years in advance to evaluate an unknown and potentially hostile future.