For a certain generation, getting a front-row spot at Billie Eilish‘s 2025 Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour must approximate what it felt like to touch the Beatles’ hem. In “Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)” the movie, those young fans are seen trembling, weeping, screaming, nearly convulsing along to the words of doomy Eilish bops like “Chihiro” or the ultimately maximalist breakup anthem “The Greatest” (which truly has one of the greatest bridges ever put to song). This new film, co-directed by James Cameron and Billie Eilish, offers mostly superficial insight into why Eilish hits so hard for her fans; Cameron’s insight into her allure is about as deep as when he (unintendedly hilariously) tells her “eyeliner really reads from a distance” while she applies a pre-show cat eye.

But who cares? “Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour” is meant to be an immersive concert experience, one for those who probably couldn’t afford the tickets to her summer 2025 tour, or missed out on the four shows she played in Manchester that summer at Co-op Live. For a pop-charged adrenaline rush, you can’t beat the view: It was Cameron’s idea to film the tour with 17 3D cameras because, well, why not? At this point, it’s gauche to dive down to the Titanic, and it’s something to do between, or in spite of, the “Avatar” movies.

Cameron may not seem to know much about pop music or even the Eilish mythology, but he does know his way around a camera. In interstitial, “candid” conversations with Eilish sprinkled throughout her concert set, the Oscar-winning filmmaker holds the camera himself while making her a talking head. Meanwhile, Eilish appears to know her way around the camera, too, picking up a handheld throughout her show to turn a fisheye-lensed spotlight on her band.

“Hit Me Hard and Soft” is so committed to the idea of recreating the concert experience that for much of the film, you can hear the audience sing-screaming along with (and hanging onto) Eilish’s every word, but her consummate showmanship eventually drowns the noise out. Her fans are the obsessive, camp-out-overnight-or-for-days-outside-the-venue types, with one declaring, “Parents, therapy, nothing could compete” with her music. Eilish at one point seems to admire the scrapes on her hands from fans digging their nails in, while noting that at that age she would’ve been just as desperate to meet one of her idols, so she understands. She’s only minorly unsettled; we, a little more so.

Eilish’s setlist includes the entirety of her 2024 “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” full of breathtaking songs that range from a whisper of electronic noise to titanic, ocean-sized releases of emotion to catchy radio earworms (like lesbian anthem “Lunch”). Then, there are the greatest hits, like the fuck-off-and-die breakup epic “Happier Than Ever,” off her more acoustically tethered 2021 album. Alongside the setlist, Cameron checks in on Eilish throughout the 18 or so hours leading up to the show, as Eilish selects from her jersey-forward wardrobe, or gets special attention for her chronic ankle sprains. “Hit Me Hard and Soft” the movie isn’t interested in a psychological profile, though: We’re here for a day in the life, a day in a tour that feels like any other day for Eilish, and then we’re gone.

The layers of screens here — from every attending seemingly experiencing the concert through the back-facing camera on their phone to the LED projections flanking Eilish at all times — can be as headache-inducing as the reality of any concert. “Hit Me Hard and Soft” is largely shot like a typical concert movie except for the fact that it’s in 3D — but the 3D works exceptionally well to place you onstage with Eilish, who works without backup dancers and with an intimately scaled band (and, sorry, spoiler alert, an eventual cameo from brother and collaborator Finneas). She wants her concertgoers, her fans, to feel like “it’s me and them,” and this film does effectively capture that from the comfort of a heated AMC seat and in Dolby sound. And it captures Eilish in all her romantic grandeur.

Grade: B

Paramount Pictures opens “Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)” on Friday, May 8.

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