Let me just start out by saying that I am probably one of the biggest Billie Eilish fans that you’ll ever find. I saw her in concert for the first time last year before everything crumbled, and we had to start quarantining and social distancing. I consider this Billie Eilish concert to be one of the greatest things I could have ever experienced before the pandemic really took over, so let’s just say I was more than excited when I heard that a documentary was coming out about one of my favorite artists ever. Of course, I had to make a whole thing out of it which included having a watch party with one of my best friends. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the documentary. How personal will it be? Will I learn things that I already don’t know about Billie Eilish? Will I truly get a deep dive into the life of Billie Eilish? This has always been one of my concerns when watching documentaries about my favorite artists; I want to know if the documentary will actually be intimate.
Over my winter break, I watched the Sweetener Tour documentary titled Ariana Grande: Excuse Me, I Love You. I was so excited to watch this because I am a huge fan of Ariana Grande, but the documentary only highlighted her concert performances. Don’t get me wrong, I loved reliving the Sweetener Tour concert, but I expected the documentary to be a little more personal. Eilish’s The World’s a Little Blurry, however, does exactly. I learned so much about Eilish and how she was feeling throughout her career and life that I had no idea about. The biggest reveal about Eilish’s life that I feel many can agree on, is that she had a boyfriend!! While promoting her debut album, she was in a relationship with a fellow musician named Brandon Adams. We learn throughout the documentary how Eilish was feeling distant from her boyfriend because it was always hard to get ahold of him, and he didn’t seem very committed to the relationship like she was. She ultimately broke it off with him before her concert in New York because she was not feeling supported by him. Additionally, the documentary gifts us a close look at Eilish’s journal with all her drawings and notes, and some of these were turned into songs and music videos. For example for her song “When The Party’s Over,” her idea has always been black liquid coming out of her eyes for the music video, and we learn she tested this idea in her backyard with her mom as the test subject.
Something else we learn about Eilish is how critical she is of herself when it comes to writing songs and making music with her brother Finneas. We learn that she absolutely hated her Coachella performance that many of her fans and those who attended the concert may have loved. Billie Eilish dealt with many technical difficulties before the performance which included the screen behind her not working properly, and this caused a delay before her performance. She also forgot the lyrics to her song “All the Good Girls Go to Hell” which resulted in her awkwardly playing it off with the audience while the music continued to play. When I first saw this, I thought it was cute and funny the way she flubbed through the verses of the song, but Eilish was genuinely disappointed in herself. Moreover, we learn that Finneas had to hide the label’s request for him and his sister to write a hit. As they were nearing the deadline for the album to be finished, Billie Eilish grew more annoyed with the writing process, and she was more nervous than ever that people were gonna hate the album. That obviously did not happen considering that the album quickly reached number one on the Billboard album charts. However, it makes sense that the label wanted Finneas to hide their request from her considering how much pressure she puts on herself. She was not fully confident about the release of the album, but I bet she cherishes that album more than ever now. These are a few things we learn about the teenage singer and how she rose to stardom, so I can confidently recommend this movie if you want to delve deeper into Eilish’s life. “The World’s a Little Blurry” is now playing exclusively on Apple TV+, and you can watch the trailer for the film here.