Itypical Billie Eilish scene: The world is a little blurry, the documentary’s pop star is in the backyard, surrounded by her family. She is busy filming preliminary scene sketches to show her video team what she wants from her next video clip. Eilish’s mother plays Billie, sitting at a precisely tilted table and pretending to drink from a glass. “Don’t zoom,” Eilish orders the video crew behind the lens. “Don’t do anything like those damn filmmakers do.” In the video footage itself, for her song When the Party’s Over, Eilish is the locus of control, making the director appear to be her meek representative. When she leaves the set, she tells the mother and the manager that she is directing the rest of her videos alone.
From the professional (self-flagging for his live shows) to the personal (mistreatment of a boyfriend), Eilish takes it easy. The film implicitly argues that this autonomy is why it is so famous. It’s a seductive comparison to Framing Britney Spears, the recent documentary about the millennium pop icon’s struggle for the most basic control over his life. Eilish’s control is likely to be considered a clean conclusion for the Britney era – “See how things have changed for the better for women in pop” – but it is arguably the beginning of a different time of fame, with its own overwhelming pressures.
The slightly blurry world contrasts Eilish’s early years in the spotlight with those of Justin Bieber. His journey as a 12-year-old fan and beloved artist to the new superstar and burnt mentor of fame is a dynamic and moving part of the film: Eilish’s mother comes to tears for the “very sad” Bieber who does not have his ubiquitous daughter support system. family. Katy Perry also appears to offer guidance to Eilish on the “weird trip” of pop fame, another nod to the lineage of American pop stars apparently destined for peak and fall.
Other than that, the film is largely domestic. Eilish’s mother is always looking after her, often suffocated with worry and admiration. Her father, the unsung hero with his modern clothes and quiet wisdom, adores her. (He is the obvious antithesis of Jamie Spears, the man behind Britney’s tutelage.) Eilish’s only immediate antagonist is his loving composer and producer brother, Finneas, who says he needs to trick her into writing popular songs – songs that she fears to write because with popularity comes hatred.
With this emotional support – in addition to heightened public awareness of mental health – Eilish can be frank about the ups and downs of her life in a way that frees her from the expectations of perfection that paved the way for Spears and Bieber’s downfall. This transparency – the kind that many young stars naturally or deliberately display on social media – is another way for Eilish to maintain control. But it has its own cost, forcing it to consider its brand not only in the real world and in the tabloids, but online, among its peers, fans and trolls.
“I can’t have a moment where I’m like, ‘I don’t want to do this,'” Eilish says to her team, after someone writes an Instagram comment saying she was rude to her date and greets. “I have to keep smiling and, otherwise, they hate me and think I’m horrible.” Moments earlier, we saw an exhausted and disoriented Eilish being repeatedly pulled back for an ad hoc cattle call with industry people and their children. Although her mother is quick to acknowledge that they failed her that night, the fact remains: Eilish is punished – and quickly – for not being perfect. The questions hang in the air: to what extent will this negativity spread and what will the repercussions be?
Eilish’s debut album made her the first artist born in the 21st century to have a number 1 record in the United States. There is no precedent for her as the first native digital pop star. Your struggle for control may not be rooted in the fight against the bogeyman in the music industry, but in the persistent anxiety and awareness of online abuse and the constant stress of being misinterpreted. The world is a little blurry lasts 150 minutes: Eilish is between not being able to escape the documentation and being the only way she knows how to live and work. In that sense, little has changed. Despite all of Eilish’s stability and self-direction, the unaltered scrutiny of young women means that she faces the same situation as Spears.
And radical transparency and control cannot do much. When someone from Eilish’s record company asks if it is wise for the singer to take a vocal anti-drug stance – in case she tries it when she’s older and gets “dragged” (criticized by fans) – Eilish’s mother backs off: stay true to who Billie it should now be enough. Eilish replies, “Well, she is right. She’s right. ”She knows that it is not enough for young superstars to appear to live authentically in the present. They also need to work five years ahead, assessing the risks of an unknown and potentially hostile future.