‘Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour’ is a masterclass in connection

At one point during “Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour” – the new concert film that Eilish co-directed with James Cameron – she asks the audience to go completely quiet. 

Surprisingly, they do. Eilish then begins to record different harmony parts on a loop recording device, each melody playing back underneath the new one as her audience watches, silent and rapt. As soon as she finishes, letting out the first few lines of her song “when the party’s over,” a deafening roar erupts once more. 

In 2021, the documentary “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry,” followed Eilish in the lead up to her 2019 debut album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” – right as she, at the ripe age of 17, became a worldwide phenomenon. That documentary, directed by R.J. Cutler, offers a vulnerable, sometimes uncomfortable portrait of a very young star on the rise, openly struggling with her mental health. In one scene, her mother asks her if her lyrics about jumping off of a bridge reflect how she really feels. She nods, then points out that having a creative outlet to express those feelings are part of why she doesn’t. Those songs, the film supposes, are also what helps her millions of fans feel seen – fans who are struggling with the very same feelings that she is. 

The concert film for Eilish’s most recent tour (filmed in 3D with an assist from Cameron), is not the same kind of film – while it gives us a behind the scenes look at the tour itself, those moments are not nearly as revealing. But, the concert itself offers a firsthand look at the connection between Eilish and her fans that “The World’s a Little Blurry” highlights, and shows us an artist with the gravitas to command a crowd with no help from anyone but herself. 

Throughout “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” there’s a particular emphasis on the crowd – moreso, it feels, than your typical concert film. You can hear Eilish’s haunting vocals just fine, but the crowd is never far behind her, screaming the lyrics to every song with a sort of abandon that only music really ever elicits. 

During many songs, but perhaps most noticeably in “TV,” a song about feeling numb to the world and losing yourself in a relationship, audience members weep and sob their way through lyrics like “I’ll try not to starve myself, just because you’re mad at me.” In “The World’s a Little Blurry,” there are conversations about the commerciality of Eilish’s music, whether that be the production, or the dark themes. Watching every young person in the room moved to tears by her, it’s hard to imagine ever being concerned about her ability to connect. 

But for as much as the film focuses on the fans, Eilish herself is indisputably the real star of the show. The 3D aspects of “Hit Me Hard and Soft” are not all that innovative, but they are expertly done and make her leap off the screen, showcasing the fact that she only needs herself to make that palpable connection with an audience of thousands. 

Her band sits in a sunken pit lower than the rest of the stage. There are no backup dancers. Sometimes, her backup singers join her, such as for a gorgeous rendition of “Your Power.” But for the most part, it’s just her – she runs around the perimeter of the stage during songs like “Lunch” and “Therefore I Am,” throwing her weight around like she’s the biggest baller to ever walk the earth. And you believe that confidence as much as you believe her vulnerability, her vocals ever expressive and surprising, drawing you into her orbit. This is an artist unafraid to expose the darkest parts of herself to millions of people – because, as evidenced by her meteoric rise, she knows she’s not alone in those feelings.

“Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour” opens in theaters this weekend.