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      ‘Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry’ Review: Fame and Family

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry’ Review: Fame and FamilyA documentary captures the creation of Eilish’s multiple-Grammy-winning debut album, recorded at home but poised to go global.Billie Eilish granted access to filmmakers at a fragile time when her album’s success wasn’t guaranteed.Credit…Apple TV+Feb. 25, 2021Billie Eilish, the ultramodern pop star who’s both colorfully gothic and establishment-friendly, is a fascinating subject: vividly creative, offhandedly vulnerable, barely visibly self-conscious. And also, a teenager. “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry,” the new documentary about her rise, finds her shaping global aesthetics while cocooned in a close-knit family, and treats both circumstances with equal casualness. In this film, all of Eilish’s interactions are human-scale, or smaller.“Blurry” — directed, with determined informality, by R.J. Cutler (“The War Room,” “The September Issue”) — doesn’t tell a story about Eilish so much as sit back and presume that one will unfold. Which, of course, it does. Her 2019 debut album, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?,” is the product of countless home bedroom recording sessions with her brother, Finneas, who produces all of her music. That album goes on to earn her five Grammys. Cameras were there throughout.And yet “Blurry” isn’t triumphant, strictly speaking. Instead, it relies on the accretive power of the mundane. It moves forward without narration, and sometimes without narrative rhythm — often it feels almost observational, like a nature film. The abundance of footage, and the space it’s given to breathe — the movie is almost two and a half hours long — captures the restless loneliness of superstardom.[embedded content]Eilish’s approach to that fame is both game and shrugging. Her songwriting is visceral and often dark: she shows the journal in which she draws ghoulish scenes and writes poems that may become lyrics, including, in all caps, “I WANA END ME.” Even when the film shows fans clamoring for Eilish, it remains resolute in centering her. In footage drawn from various concerts around the world, the sound focuses tightly on her vocals, turning even arena shows into sites of outrageous intimacy.At times, “Blurry” suggests greater friction happening just out of sight, gently spotlighting the tug of war between Eilish and the expectations placed upon her. Closing in on completing the album, Finneas grumbles, “I feel like I’ve been, like, told to write a hit, but I’ve been told to not tell Billie that we have to write a hit.” Later, when Eilish and Finneas are recording her song for the James Bond film “No Time to Die,” she mopes over the theatrical belting it requires: “I’m gonna get made fun of by the internet when I do it.”Toward the end of the film, as she’s touring her album around the world, fissures appear. Her ankle finally gives out at a show in Milan, and in New York, she bristles at the after-show circus of photo ops with hangers-on, and then again when someone posts online that she had been rude. At Coachella, a frisky, eyes-bugged Orlando Bloom (paramour of Katy Perry) offers hugs backstage, and Eilish also awkwardly meets Justin Bieber, her childhood idol. Bieber is a recurring character here, as an abstract deity, then a generous collaborator, and also as a symbolic foil, a reminder of what happens when teen stardom goes awry.Eilish appears unlikely to unravel before the cameras. Stars are being filmed constantly now anyhow — the gap between social media videos and actual film is shrinking with each passing iPhone camera improvement. That advertorial content has extended into the domain of documentary film isn’t novel anymore.So on the one hand, it’s noteworthy that a rising star like Eilish granted heavy access to a filmmaker long before her debut album was even completed. That is a fragile time, with no guarantee of success, to permit to be captured for posterity.And yet even when Eilish is besieged or bedraggled, there is never anything other than a sense of safety in this footage. The boilerplate language that appears at the end of the film’s credits reminds why: “Interscope Records is the author of this cinematographic or audiovisual work.”Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little BlurryRated R. Running time: Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes. In theaters and on Apple TV+. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, HBO Max, Hulu and More in January

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, HBO Max, Hulu and More in JanuaryEvery month, subscription streaming services add a new batch of titles to their libraries. Here are our picks for January.Dec. 31, 2020, 6:21 p.m. ETNote: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our twice-weekly Watching newsletter here.Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany in “WandaVision.”Credit…Marvel Studios/DisneyNew to Disney+‘WandaVision’Starts streaming: Jan. 15Possibly the most anticipated Disney+ show since “The Mandalorian,” the superhero sitcom “WandaVision” represents the start of a new wave of Marvel Comics TV series and promises to be more eclectic and creative than the grim and gritty action dramas on other networks. In “WandaVision,” two of the odder members of the Avengers — the mutant matter-manipulating Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and the superpowered android Vision (Paul Bettany) — go undercover in suburbia, where they try to fit in by making their lives more like what they’ve seen on television. Disney has mostly been keeping the details of this long-in-production show a secret, but the advertising so far has made it look downright surreal — and absolutely unmissable.Also arriving:Jan. 8“Marvel Studios: Legends”Jan. 22“Pixar Popcorn”Leslie Odom Jr. as Sam Cooke in “One Night in Miami.”Credit…Patti Perret/Amazon StudiosNew to Amazon‘One Night in Miami’Starts streaming: Jan. 15Based on a Kemp Powers play, the historical drama “One Night in Miami” imagines what might have happened during a 1964 meeting at a Miami hotel between Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree), Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) and Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge). Not long after these four gathered, Ali changed his name from Cassius Clay and declared himself to be a Muslim, Malcolm left the Nation of Islam, Cooke recorded music informed by the civil rights movement, and Brown started winding down his N.F.L. career to devote himself more to activism and acting. Directed by Regina King, the movie frames an evening of celebration and reflection as one long, energizing bull session between four very different men, arguing and joking, away from the scrutiny of a public judging their choices.‘Flack’ Season 1Starts streaming: Jan. 22Anna Paquin gets her juiciest role since “True Blood” in “Flack,” a sort of lower-stakes version of “Scandal,” following public relations “fixers” who do all they can to keep their desperate celebrity clients out of the tabloids. In nearly every episode, someone needs the help of Paquin’s character, Robyn, or her co-workers after being caught in the wrong bed or found at the scene of a crime. A lot of the entertainment value comes from how these shrewd and nurturing professionals — mostly women — work miracles to save some entitled folks who barely deserve their help. There’s some pathos, too, as Robyn manages her messy personal life, but “Flack” is generally more enjoyably soapy than profound.Also arriving:Jan. 8“Herself”Jan. 15“Tandav”Jan. 18“Alone”Jan. 22“Jessy and Nessy”Hailee Steinfeld, center, as the lead in “Dickinson.”Credit…Apple TV+New to Apple TV+‘Dickinson’ Season 2Starts streaming: Jan. 8The loopy historical dramedy “Dickinson” was part of Apple TV+’s first wave of television shows; and it remains one of the service’s most acclaimed. The second season has all the charms of the first, beginning with Hailee Steinfeld’s winning performance as the poet Emily Dickinson, portrayed as a headstrong young woman who bucks her family’s ideas of respectable femininity. The clever hook of “Dickinson” is that while it is set in the distant American past, the characters behave like they are in a modern suburban TV household — bickering wryly when they’re all together and then later brooding quietly while melancholy pop music plays. Season 2 opens with an admission that the historical record is vague on this phase of the writer’s life (a period not long after her brother married the woman Dickinson loved), but that doesn’t stop the show’s creators from using her poems as a window into her daily romantic despair.‘Palmer’Starts streaming: Jan. 29Justin Timberlake mutes his big pop star personality considerably for the small-scaled drama “Palmer,” a movie about a chastened ex-con trying to get his life back on track in his small Southern hometown. Alisha Wainwright plays a local teacher who feels drawn to Palmer after she sees how he takes care of a neglected neighbor boy who is teased at school because he loves toys and clothes designed for girls. The “misfits are people, too” message is uplifting, though the film’s real selling point is its cast, which also includes the phenomenal Juno Temple as a well-meaning mother who struggles with impulse control.Also arriving:Jan. 15“Servant” Season 2Jan. 22“Losing Alice”John Lurie in “Painting With John.”Credit…HBO MaxNew to HBO Max‘Tiger’Starts streaming: Jan. 10The 2020 docu-series “The Last Dance” set a high bar for in-depth, behind-the-scenes sports stories, filled with glory and scandal. HBO’s two-part “Tiger” isn’t as dazzling, but it’s at least playing in the same league. Though it is missing a central interview with the golfer Tiger Woods himself, this mini-series does include input from many of his friends and colleagues, who speak about the private Woods — good and bad — that few golf fans have ever gotten to see. “Tiger” features remarkable footage from throughout Woods’s career (including his amateur years, which were unusually well-documented thanks to his prescient parents). But in between the scenes of a once-in-a-generation athlete dominating his sport, this documentary also covers the immense pressure that was placed on him. And it is frank about what happened when the man began to crack.‘Painting With John’Starts streaming: Jan. 22In the early 1990s, the avant-garde musician John Lurie created and hosted the lovably bizarre series “Fishing With John,” a low-key nature and interview show that frequently took surreal turns. Lurie’s new project, “Painting With John,” plays things just a little bit straighter. Like an oddball version of Bob Ross, Lurie starts each episode teaching viewers about art but ends up talking more about life, spinning personal anecdotes and sharing his insights and beliefs. He does paint, too; and the colorful close-ups of Lurie’s canvasses combined with the hushed growl of his voice makes this an unusually relaxing show.Also arriving:Jan. 14“Search Party” Season 4Jan. 21“Gomorrah” Season 3Jan. 24“Euphoria” Special, Part 2Jan. 29“The Little Things”New to Hulu‘Jann’ Seasons 1 & 2Starts streaming: Jan. 29Fans of lighthearted and character-driven Canadian sitcoms like “Schitt’s Creek” should enjoy “Jann,” a similarly sweet and dryly satirical comedy about a former jet-setter adjusting to a career downturn. The singer-songwriter Jann Arden plays a cartoony version of herself: a musician who had a few chart hits in the 1990s but has since dealt with health problems, relationship woes, family crises and a changing pop music market. In the show’s two seasons so far — both already hugely popular in Canada — the amiable Arden has been willing to look silly as she spoofs the foibles of a showbiz exile. But she and her fellow “Jann” creators Leah Gauthier and Jennica Harper have also balanced the character’s persistent state of embarrassment with strong and stirring elements of underdog melodrama.Also arriving:Jan. 1“Like a Boss”“Save Yourselves!”Jan. 13“Everyone Is Doing Great” Season 1Jan. 15“Endlings” Season 2“The Ultimate Playlist of Noise”Jan. 22“Derek DelGaudio’s In & of Itself”“The Sister”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Mariah! Dolly! Carrie! 2020 Can’t Quarantine This Cheer

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storycritic’s notebookMariah! Dolly! Carrie! 2020 Can’t Quarantine This CheerPop stars try to pull off a Christmas spectacular in tough times, with three sparkly but heartfelt specials now on streaming services.Pop divas in holiday sparkle: from left, Carrie Underwood, Mariah Carey and Dolly Parton.Credit…From left: Anne Marie Fox/HBO Max, Apple TV Plus, CBSDec. 18, 2020, 9:00 a.m. ETWith the C.D.C. advising against faithful friends who are dear to us gathering anywhere near to us, it’s understandable that we all might need some extra assistance getting into the holiday spirit this year. One of the few bright spots of the season, though, is the abundance of new Christmastime musical specials, helmed by some of our most beloved and benevolent divas. Thank the streaming wars, in part: HBO Max, Apple TV+ and CBS All Access have all jockeyed to get a different A-list angel atop their trees, perhaps in hopes that they’ll persuade you to subscribe to one of their services before your long winter hibernation (or at least forget to cancel before your free trial is over.) Whether gaudy, glorious excess or down-home simplicity, each offers a different take on a perplexing question: How do you stage a Christmas spectacular in decidedly unspectacular times?First up is Carrie Underwood, whose “My Gift: A Christmas Special From Carrie Underwood” is streaming on HBO Max. A companion piece to her recent first holiday album, the stately and reverent “My Gift,” Underwood’s special finds her fronting an orchestra led by the former “Tonight Show” bandleader Rickey Minor. Featuring duets with John Legend and, adorably, her 5-year-old son Isaiah (whose pa-rum-pa-pum-pums are impressively on point), “My Gift” is relatively light on pizazz — save for the eight (!) increasingly dramatic costume changes. As Underwood’s stylists told “People” magazine in an article devoted entirely to all of her different “My Gift” outfits, the fact that the country powerhouse wouldn’t be moving around the stage much gave them an opportunity to “break out these giant confections of tulle and sequins that would never really be appropriate for any other event.” The most memorable is a crimson-tinged Diana Couture dress-and-cape number that suggests a cross between a bridal cake-topper and Jude Law on “The Young Pope.”A scene from “Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special,” which features guests like Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande.Credit…Apple TV PlusThe splendor and stirring purity of Underwood’s voice is powerful enough that even a plunging ball gown adorned with literal angel wings cannot overshadow it. Underwood’s most sublime belting, though, doesn’t come until the penultimate set of songs, when she absolutely blows the roof off “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “O Holy Night.” It’s enough to make the relative restraint of the rest of the show pale in comparison. “We really wanted this special and my album to be something that people would return to year after year and not feel dated,” she told “People” and, accordingly, there’s nary a nod to 2020 in sight. It’s a safe choice in a production so full of them that, despite its ample cheer, ends up feeling a little hermetic and snoozy.An offering not as worried about time-stamping itself is “Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special,” a star-studded entry from Apple TV+ in the Yuletide streaming wars. It’s certainly the most plot-heavy of the bunch (a neurotic elf played by Billy Eichner must restore Christmas cheer to a world low on tidings by booking an impromptu Mariah concert, or something), and the one with a wardrobe that most frequently luxuriates in the lack of F.C.C. oversight of streaming content. Perhaps when she wrote “All I Want For Christmas Is You” she was singing to double-sided tape.Though a tad convoluted, Carey’s special is full of one-liners and knowing winks; when the elf has trouble tracking her down, she informs him, “It’s called elusive, darling.” Woodstock makes a brief, animated cameo (perhaps to remind us that Apple owns the streaming rights to the “Peanuts” specials, too), which provides a segue into Carey’s gorgeous, sultry rendition of “Christmastime Is Here.” A lot happens throughout these overstuffed 43 minutes, and the special could have done without some of the bells and whistles. The whistle notes, however, are another story.The most diva-licious moment of the whole affair comes when Carey is joined by two very special guests, Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande — who she stages behind her, so that they end up looking like the Supremes to her Diana Ross. Classic elusive chanteuse. By the song’s finale, though, she’s invited them both to stand beside her and riff. It provides the opportunity for something the world has been waiting for ever since a young Grande earned the nickname “Baby Mariah”: They look at each other respectfully, inhale deeply, and harmonize their whistle notes. This must be the exact sound heard when the Covid-19 vaccine enters one’s bloodstream.In “A Holly Dolly Christmas,” Dolly Parton offers the crackling warmth of a hearth.Credit…CBSA woman who might know is Dolly Parton, generous Moderna vaccine trial donor and star of the heartwarming CBS special “A Holly Dolly Christmas.” An hourlong show originally made for Sunday-night broadcast on CBS (and now streaming on CBS All Access), hers is the most traditional of the bunch, and hardly the flashiest: “It’s not a big Hollywood production show, as I’m sure you’ve noticed,” Parton says, gesturing around a set meant to look like a homey church. But she also specifies, “We have managed to do this show safely …. testing, wearing masks and social distancing.”Parton is such a charismatic presence that she doesn’t need guest stars, plot twists, or costume changes to keep this a transfixing show. Whether she’s hamming it up during “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” or filling the spiritual “Mary, Did You Know?” with empathic emotion, her special offers the crackling warmth of a hearth. Before singing her classic “Coat of Many Colors,” she tells a moving story about her late mother’s selflessness, her painted eyes brimming full of tears the entire time. Just try not to cry along with her.Earlier in the fall, Stephen Colbert showed just how tall an order that is, when he was reduced to tears after Parton burst into a ballad a cappella during their televised interview. “Like a lot of Americans,” he explained, “I’m under a lot of stress right now, Dolly!” It’s nothing to be ashamed of, though: Plenty believe there’s something deeply cathartic about Parton’s voice and her overall demeanor. As Lydia R. Hamessley writes in her recent book “Unlikely Angel: The Songs of Dolly Parton,” “For many listeners, the restorative effect of Dolly’s music seems to flow to them directly from Dolly herself, so they often experience her as a healer.” Which sounds like something we could all use right about now. As Parton spins yarns about her humble beginnings and sings songs of enduring faith in the face of despair, “A Holly Dolly Christmas” might, actually, be an effective cure for the 2020 holiday blues.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, HBO Max, Hulu and More in December

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusClassic Holiday MoviesHoliday TVBest Netflix DocumentariesAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, HBO Max, Hulu and More in DecemberEvery month, subscription streaming services add a new batch of titles to their libraries. Here are our picks for December.By More