Billie Eilish is shown without filters in his documentary

If you watch the documentary “Billie Eilish: The World ‘sa Little Blurry” hoping to know the general details of the musical sensation you are in the wrong place.

The film of two hours and twenty minutes of RJ Cutler about the songwriter of “Ocean Eyes” is not biographical nor is it a report. It is a diving in the style of cinema vérité in his life, his house, his concerts, his trial, his Tourette syndrome, his brother’s room where they famously wrote all his songs and even his diary in the year he became a star.

It’s raw and full of music, about 20 of his songs appear throughout the film, including live performances, such as his extraordinary concert at Coachella in 2019. Some songs are even complete. It is also a very, very long documentary.

Cutler, who also did “The September Issue” and “Belushi”, cited several iconic cinéma vérité (reality cinema) rock documentaries such as “Gimme Shelter” (“The Rolling Stones”) about Rolling Stones and “Dont Look Back” on Bob Dylan as inspiration. But they both made several years and albums after starting their careers. Eilish’s rise is extraordinary and yet he is at the beginning of his life, artistic and real. Fans will definitely disagree, and they’re right, but it’s a huge amount of unfiltered space to give to an artist who is just starting out. There’s no right or wrong way to make a documentary like this, but for those who aren’t fans of Eilish’s colorful bone and just have a little curiosity but no context, it’s a test of fire.

Clearly someone on Eilish’s team had an eye on her possible legacy when they invited Cutler to her family’s home to see if she wanted to follow the then 16-year-old during the year she and the his brother took off his component career, recording and releasing his debut album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”

Eilish is funny and taciturn, charismatic and fickle, like one would like and expect her to be a teenage artist. She becomes fanciful and protective of her fans, saying “they’re not my fans, they’re part of me,” and she complains that for her, composing is “torture.” She breaks the fourth wall occasionally (she told Cutler she wanted it to be like the comedy series “The Office”) to let the audience know she knows they’re there.

His brother is the driving force behind much of the productivity in his cozy family home in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles (he has since moved). Their parents educated them at home and music was always a part of their lives. Her mother, Maggie Baird, He taught them to compose and his father, Patrick O’Connell, He taught them to play instruments.

It’s interesting to see her and her Finneas -his brother- improvising the lyrics and trying different things -he suffers from anxiety about having to produce a success and she cares about a cucumber- as well as the juxtaposition of his glamorous events and presentations with the modesty of normalcy in his home life.

There are some great moments that Cutler recorded on tour. In one, for example, she meets Katy Perry, who introduces Eilish to her fiancé, “a big fan.” Only later does Eilish realize he was actor Orlando Bloom. His brother reminds him that he is “Will Turner from the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies.” She would like to repeat everything. “I thought he was just a guy,” he says.

Another is his first encounter with Justin Bieber. She talks about her long obsession with the Canadian singer in an interview and he gets in touch three days before her album is released to tell her he would like to collaborate. (She tells her manager “he could ask me to kill my dog ​​and he would”). Then in Coachella he shows up as she greets a horde of her fans. She freezes and becomes a fan. Then he cries with a touching message sent by him.

And there are also incredibly vulnerable moments, which show her exhausted and upset. Eilish is still as unique and enigmatic as she seems at a distance but is also portrayed quite as a normal Los Angeles teenager, who is processing her driver’s license, who dreams of a matte black Dodge Challenger van and texting her. a boyfriend mostly absent.

Fans will eat every crumb of this documentary and want more. Those who barely know Eilish could benefit from seeing it in parts, which is one of the benefits of the film being released on Apple TV +. There is even an intermediate.

It doesn’t look like a vain project that has been intensely controlled by the star or the machinery around it. It’s refreshing. It’s also probably one of the last times we’ll all be invited into your life this way.

“Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry,” an Apple TV + and Neon premiere, opens Friday. It has not been classified by the United States Film Association (MPAA). Duration: 140 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.