Clocking in at nearly two-and-a-half hours, “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry” charts the teenage singer-songwriter’s meteoric rise, all the way from recording her debut album, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?,” in her parents’ California home and hearing herself on the radio for the first time to selling out arenas worldwide and winning Grammy after Grammy.
I was alarmed by the The Apple TV+ doc’s runtime, but the lengthy film isn’t just for the most diehard of the “bad guy” singer’s fans, many of whom are featured in the doc, albeit fleetingly. “The World’s a Little Blurry” includes plenty of live performance footage with concertgoers loudly and tearfully singing Eilish’s words back to her. We also see fans telling the musician that she saved their lives. But the focus of the film isn’t Eilish’s fans or their intense devotion to her, and the doc skips talking head interviews from music execs weighing in on her cultural impact. Instead, we get to know Eilish on her own terms, in her own words.
An intimate portrait of Eilish’s coming-of-age story, “The World’s a Little Blurry” spotlights an immensely talented, driven, and precocious young artist, and while it is a flattering look at its subject, the doc doesn’t shy away from showing the sometimes petulant teenager’s tendency to roll her eyes at her parents or her snarky attitude. This authenticity extends to its willingness to engage with the complicated dynamics at play in the Eilish household. Eilish collaborates with her older brother, Finneas, on all of her music, and the pair’s parents, who homeschooled them, are very involved in their children’s careers.
The film takes us behind the scenes of some hard conversations between the family members. We see Eilish’s mother, Maggie, taking responsibility when she and the rest of Eilish’s team set her daughter up to fail by overextending her after a concert, a complicated blurring of lines between a parent and business associate. In one especially revealing discussion, Eilish and Maggie sit down with someone from her label to discuss her anti-drug stance. The rep is concerned that the teenager’s opinion on drug and alcohol use could change as she she gets older, and she may be viewed as a hypocrite as a result of her shifting attitudes. “Are you not going to let her be authentic to who she is now in case she does grow up to use drugs?” Maggie asks. She emphasizes that her daughter has a “whole army of people” behind her to help ensure that she doesn’t “destroy her life” like so many people in her footsteps have done. At one point Maggie makes specific mention of Justin Bieber, a former teen sensation who travelled a path she hopes Eilish, a huge fan of the Canadian singer, will be able to avoid. “I really don’t know how any artist of any age is doing it without a parent,” says Maggie. “It is a horrible time to be a teenager. Kids are depressed.”
Eilish’s own depression is explored in the doc, and she speaks frankly about her history of wrestling with suicidal thoughts and channeling her emotions into her music. “I look into the crowd and I see every single person is going through something, and I have the same problems,” she explains. “I was like, why don’t I turn this into art instead of just living with it?” This intense connection to her fans is a major focal point of the film, and it’s clear that Eilish feels a deep responsibility to them. The pressure for her to be constantly “on” can be overwhelming, but Eilish seems genuinely invested in meeting fans’ expectations, however impossible that goal may ultimately be.
“The World’s a Little Blurry” also illustrates just how high Eilish’s own standards are. Unimpressed with a director’s work on her music video, she vows to direct her next one. And the teenager does exactly that. She also balks at pressure from her label and Finneas to record a hit by making a more “accessible” song, insisting that her authenticity is what will connect to listeners.
A refreshingly honest look into a young icon’s rapidly changing world, the doc is far more than fan service or a hollow advertisement for Eilish’s music, and is well worth checking out even if you don’t have the lyrics for “ocean eyes” memorized.
“Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry” hits theaters and Apple TV+ today.
