Two critics weigh in on Billie Eilish's concert documentary 'Hit Me Hard and Soft'

Billie Eilish's Hit Me Hard and Soft tour sold out all of its 106 shows on four continents. More than one and a half million people watched her perform hits like “Bad Guy,” “Ocean Eyes” and “Birds of a Feather.” If you missed it, or want to see it again, a concert film recorded during Eilish's four-night stint in Manchester, England's Co-op Live Arena last July will be released in theaters this week with a surprising name on the bill: James Cameron, who shares directing credit with Eilish herself.

“Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)” captures Eilish’s personal, minimalist production using Cameron’s immersive high frame rate technology, last seen in “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” You can even see that Eilish's two backup singers aren't wearing matching shoes. With no dancers or costume changes, all attention is focused solely on their performance and the ecstatic fans.

Does the documentary replace Beatlemania with Billiemania? Times pop music critic Mikael Wood and Times film critic Amy Nicholson discuss it.

MIKAEL WOOD: Like Kate Winslet's well-off Rose and Leonardo DiCaprio's poor Jack, we both come to “Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour” from different perspectives. Amy, you know all about James Cameron and his movies but you've never attended a Billie Eilish concert. I've seen the singer eight or nine times but I still haven't seen a single one of the “Avatar” movies. (I love “Titanic,” obviously.)

Given your newness to Eilish, I'm eager to hear about what sense of her art you got (or didn't) from the film, whether it helped you understand why her fans feel so deeply connected to her, and how she fits into the broader matrix of girl pop. And given your knowledge of Cameron, I'm curious what you think of your grandfather's presence in the film (we see and hear him quite a bit in rehearsals and behind-the-scenes footage) and how his use of technology here compares to the rest of his work. This man loves high definition cameras. At one point I could almost read the text messages on an audience member's phone.

For my part, I will say that I really liked the surprising degree of intimacy in the performance footage. I caught this tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood in late 2024, just after Eilish became the first artist in history to be nominated for a Grammy for album of the year for her first three LPs. As I recall, the evening felt like a big, loud victory lap back home. However, Cameron's extreme close-ups convey the intricate emotions of Eilish's music in a way you can't even sitting a few rows from the stage. Similarly, its state-of-the-art sound mixing rescues the gorgeous detail of your singing from the inevitable confusion of a stadium sound system. (She is probably the purest vocal talent of her generation.)

Having said all this, what moved me most about the film may have been the many shots of teenagers crying in the audience. I never tire of seeing how much music means to young people – its power to shape their ideas about the world and their place in it – and that's something that's right at the heart of “Hit Me Hard and Soft.”

I mean, that performance of “Your Power,” in which Eilish seems to be channeling the anxieties of an entire generation? Shivers. So tell me, Amy: Do you feel like you've been to a Billie Eilish concert now?

AMY NICHOLSON: I feel like I've been to a Billie Eilish concert more than if I'd actually been to a Billie Eilish concert.

In the arena, I wouldn't have walked off stage to slide between the scaffolding or noticed when someone on the second balcony missed the first half of “Skinny” because they were in the bathroom. Of course, I'd be the weirdo in the crowd wearing my nerdiest James Cameron t-shirt, a profound reference to “Aliens.” But the high frame rate makes it abundantly clear that the Eilish fandom welcomes all weirdos.

Cameron seems to have set himself two challenges: making this Manchester stadium look as hyperreal as Pandora and photographing the crowd as if it were a rerun of “A Hard Day's Night.” The first time he put the camera behind a row of fans, I had to look over the edge of my 3D glasses to check that those waving arms weren't actually in my theater. (Your tapping foot was, however.)

Granted, there's incredible power in those close-ups of people singing and sobbing along to Eilish's songs. His music has a bedroom intimacy. It is the soundtrack of first loves and first heartbreaks, of rotten days, of sour friendships and of sweet hopes for tomorrow. In fact, witnessing the audience's emotional connection to his lyrics makes “Hit Me Hard and Soft” feel like an epic coming-of-age film as much as a concert film. Still, for face number 50 smeared with mascara, I needed fresh air.

The camera seemed delighted by the lighting from all those cell phones, but for the most part ignored the Jumbotron on the ceiling, which, when I go to big shows, is usually the only thing I end up seeing. If concert films are becoming as good or better than concerts (and much cheaper), can we see a future where artists simply release a film and save themselves a year of touring?

Also, despite being filmed in England, I don't remember hearing a single fan with a British accent. (I have heard anecdotally that ticket prices in the United States have become so expensive that it is cheaper to fly across the pond. Is “Hit me hard and soft” documentary evidence?

WOOD: Hmm, it could be, although I also noticed a group of palm trees in the distance behind Billie in a scene where she looks through the open window of a van transporting her from a show. Do they have palm trees in Manchester? Maybe Cameron was so enthralled with Eilish's act that he followed her to various cities while she filmed this thing.

As for your question about concert movies replacing concerts, I think we're a long way from that, if only because what makes all these kids sob is their physical proximity to the stars they idolize. But if these films continue to be made, I think we'll see more musicians start conceptualizing their live shows with the experience of seeing them on screen in mind. I've already witnessed that at Coachella, where nearly every headliner since Beyoncé has performed both for the people watching the festival's live stream on YouTube and those on the floor right in front of them.

Let me ask you this: Our colleague Suzy Exposito recently interviewed Eilish and Cameron for an article in Elle about “Hit Me Hard and Soft” and there, Cameron calls himself “a serial offender by extolling the virtues of girl power and its many dimensions.” (Such an unusual way to put it.) How do you think of Eilish compared to some of the heroes of the director's other films: Sigourney Weaver's Ripley in “Aliens,” for example, or Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor in the “Terminator” films? Do you feel a connection between these women? Do you think Cameron does?

Billie Eilish in the concert documentary “Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)”.

(Henry Hwu/Paramount Pictures)

NICOLSON: I like your idea that Cameron followed Eilish as Phish. You're right: He's been obsessed with strong women for four decades and seems to find Eilish's dominance over 20,000 people as impressive as Linda Hamilton's biceps. He puts his metaphorical attention on the fact that this is his show, the lasers and the illuminated floors that she designed, even going back in time to establish that it was Eilish's idea to film her entrance from her own point of view. But despite his insistence that their shared address credit will include her name above his and in a larger size, in the end his name appears above hers in exactly the same font. I suppose agent-lawyers are the most powerful of all.

I loved watching him fall in love with Eilish's screen presence, especially that moment backstage when she gave Cameron a makeup tutorial on how to make her icy blue eyes pop on camera. Yes, everyone is there to hear her sing, but she connects with the lens like the great silent film star Gloria Swanson: she's ready for her 3D close-up, Mr. Cameron. (Also, she does her own glam? I'm doubly impressed.)

Eilish’s music has resonated in my house since we watched “Hit Me Hard and Soft.” More than that, now that I've had a better-than-front-row view of the passion Eilish puts into every syllable, my interest in her rumored acting debut as Sylvia Plath in Sarah Polley's upcoming adaptation of “The Bell Jar” has increased. If that project comes to fruition, meet me here for an encore.