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'Billie Eilish -- Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)' review: Epic AND intimate

Mark Meszoros, The News-Herald (Willoughby, Ohio) on

Published in Entertainment News

If you’re a musical artist looking for a director for your next concert film, you may want to check if James Cameron is available.

However, it wasn’t global pop star Billie Eilish who reached out to Cameron — the director of films ranging from “The Terminator” to “Titanic” to the “Avatar” series — but instead it was he who approached her for what resulted in “Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live In 3D),” so he may be a tough get.

In theaters this week, the excellent concert film is, to be technically correct, co-directed by Cameron and Eilish, but I’m comfortable crediting Cameron with the stunning stereoscopic depth that sets the movie apart from myriad other offerings of its kind. Perhaps like no concert film before it, “Live in 3D” hits the next-best-thing-to-being-there mark.

On the one hand, even with Cameron’s second-to-none 3D implementation, it’s still not quite the same as being in the arena. On the other, it can feel like you’re actually on stage with Eilish — or with her as she floats on a platform above it or scurries below it to reemerge in a new performance location.

Somehow, it’s all both epic and intimate.

Eilish’s sold-out global “Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour” — in support of the beloved singer’s 2024 album, “Hit Me Hard and Soft” — stretched for 14 months from autumn 2024 to winter 2025.

Cameron slipped away from work on last year’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” to oversee filming of the four shows in July at Co-op Live arena, the U.K.’s largest music venue, in Manchester, England. The endeavor, according to the film’s production notes, involved the simultaneous use of about 20 cameras that are part of a prototype system developed by Cameron’s production company, Lightstorm Entertainment.

As you’d expect from Cameron, whose “Avatar” movies have blown away any other modern 3D films when it comes to the visuals (if not the storytelling), “Live in 3D” literally pops off the screen, leaving you all but convinced you can grab a piece of the confetti floating through the arena at the show’s conclusion.

But enough about Cameron. Despite his significant contributions, this is Eilish’s show, a highly impressive one at that.

You can’t be anything but astounded by the 24-year-old Eilish, whose debut single, “Ocean Eyes,” won her attention when she was barely a teen. She’s gone on to release hit songs and albums, and her accolades include 10 Grammy Awards and two Academy Awards.

I mean, wow.

That said, I feel the need to acknowledge that while I’ve admired the music star and casually enjoyed her music now and then, I can’t claim to be a real fan, so you’ll have to look elsewhere for a more authoritative view on how “Live in 3D” delivers for her army of devotees.

And with apologies to her talented band members and backup singers, her intensely passionate fans are the co-stars of the film. “Live in 3D” is peppered with shots of them packed in the stands, crying as they mouth or sing along to every word and try to capture the seemingly life-affirming experience on their phones.

This kind of obsession surely isn’t much different from the affection given to other stars, such as Taylor Swift — whose “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” concert film was a theatrical event in 2023 — but it’s still something to witness.

Cameron also shot behind-the-scenes footage that is slotted in between songs, including interviews with fans, many of whom talk about what Eilish and her music have meant to them. How they relate to her and how she’s given them hope in bleak times — honestly, it’s powerful.

 

Her work on stage is illustrative of how she’s earned such a following. With her supporting players largely confined to two areas sunken into the raised floor, Eilish — wearing her typically baggy clothes, including a basketball jersey with “Hard and Soft” emblazoned on it — bounces about delivering her hits and other songs. That is when she’s not sitting cross-legged on the stage or lying on her back on or above it.

In snippets of interviews with Cameron, she speaks of why she likes this style of performance, attributing it to male hip-hop performers she appreciated growing up, and why she doesn’t dress more alluringly, more like many of her pop star peers. It’s all revealing stuff — at least for those of us not already well-versed in such topics.

Of course, this is a narrow, carefully crafted window into Eilish and what makes her tick, but it’s hard not to appreciate her talking about why it’s important to deliver every night for her fans. She wears this work on her body, from the taping she regularly gets on her shins to the sprained ankle she sustains in a show right before the Manchester mini-residency to the scratches on her hands and wrists she gets from her nightly patrol of the arena to touch the hands of fans pressed against the front rails.

At the end of the day, this is still just a concert film, so if you’re not the least bit interested in performances of highly personal songs that also include “Bad Guy,” “TV” and “Birds of a Feather,” to name but a few, “Live in 3D” isn’t for you. But if you couldn’t see this visually ambitious show — we’re talking lasers, fire, smoke, huge video screens and dazzling lighting that Eilish helped to design — or want to relive it, it is likely to deliver to a significant degree.

Already featured in the 2021 documentary “Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry” and another concert film from that year, “Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles,” Eilish initially didn’t plan to record this latest tour.

I’m very glad she did. I walked out at least a bit closer to being a real fan.

———

‘BILLIE EILISH — HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR (LIVE IN 3D)’

3.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG-13 (for strong language, and suggestive references)

Running time: 1:54

How to watch: In theaters May 8

———


©2026 The News-Herald (Willoughby, Ohio). Visit The News-Herald (Willoughby, Ohio) at www.news-herald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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