![]() A documentary like this is entirely reliant on the access that the family are willing to provide the filmmakers and here they were allowed to see a lot of personal candid moments at home and footage from the kids growing up. The second half sees the stresses that touring the album has on her physical and mental wellbeing, before finishing with the albums sweeping success at the Grammy awards. Her increased profile along with the immediate success of the album see her perform at the Cochella festival. Split into two halves, the documentary follows the singer Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O'Connell as they produce her debut album "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go". That said I enjoyed (though that sometimes "enjoyed" is slightly the wrong word) the film. Though I like Billie when I've seen her interviewed previously, I'm not really a fan of the style of music she does. In ordinary circumstances, I probably wouldn't have watched this. Nevertheless, while I'm not what you would call a fan, as someone who dabbles with music, music production, and understands a fair bit about the process of songwriting and production, I take my hat off to these two. I just saw some spooky parallels and heard Billie saying some stuff that I recognize from being around my own kid. It's always going to be difficult, but there's a lot more exposure to everything now. They're growing up in a totally different world to the one I experienced at that age. It's easy to ignore or write off what our kids are saying, but we can never know their difficulties or their pain points. I only recently learned that Billie is two weeks older than my daughter, and it was then that I could see some of the parallels of what she is going through. The support they both receive from their parents is lovely to see. It's just Billie and Finneas, raw and mostly unedited. The documentary was well done, and every bit as informative as any we've seen without the need for a narrator or a narrative. There's a depth to the lyrics that makes them accessible in a number of ways. Baring one's soul is not in keeping with today's twee world of obvious party lyrics. And it is special, Finneas and Billie O'Connell represent a serious threat to homogeny that is modern pop music, and I'm not sure this is all pop music anyway. She's unapologetic about her openness, and that she doesn't have a team of songwriters makes her music all the more special. ![]() What we have here is an unapologetic eye on her world, the creative process, the ups, the downs, and all the bits in the middle. She isn't being pushed into a corner by style gurus and managers, and when she does get pushed she pushes back and they listen. I always been impressed by how much of herself is on display. It's refreshing to find an artist that is truly authentic, has genuine talent, and despite reluctance, fatigue, and the pressure of having to go on in spite of how she may feel, goes on and on.
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