Billie Eilish Lands A 99% Rotten Tomatoes Score, definitely a first

I’m not sure I can think of two more different names in Hollywood than 24-year-old pop musician Billie Eilish and 71-year-old director James Cameron, but they threw all the Grammys and Oscars into a pile and probably wouldn’t fit in a floating door. But now the two have teamed up for a fantastic theatrical experiment, earning top ratings from critics and audiences alike on Rotten Tomatoes.

The project is Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour Live in 3D, And the end of this may indicate how James Cameron, aka the only man worth watching 3D movies in the last two decades, is involved with, thanks to his out-of-this-world technology few can emulate. Now he applies it to a concert. But he’s not even the sole director, as Billie has co-directed it with him.

As it is, Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft has a stellar 93% Rotten Tomatoes score with more than 50 reviews. And then a 99% Rotten Tomatoes rating from audiences as they hit theaters this weekend. Cameron explained the idea behind the project to New York Timeswhere was of idea, it turns out, after following Eilish’s concerts and career:

Cameron’s goal was simple. “We’re basically surveillance cameras,” he explained. “It’s not like one of those conceits where, ‘Okay, I’m Martin Scorsese, and I’m going to start at the beginning of the Stones tour and hit all these amazing backstage moments.’ It wasn’t this concert,” he said. His film with Eilish “isn’t the story of the whole tour. It’s the story of the day.”

The film was shot in four concerts, using 17 different portable cameras moving around the stage to capture the footage needed for the 3D version, including a cameraman following her specifically with a 3D camera. Given the popularity of the concerts, Eilish had to continue wearing the same outfit to all concerts for continuity.

It’s certainly far from the first concert film ever made, and obviously, there have been high-profile ones in the past (see Scorsese Stones comment), but it’s certainly unique both in terms of technology and the fact that it’s a director who has directed three of the four highest-grossing films of all time. We’ll see how this does in theaters, though it’s currently competing The Devil Wears Prada and Mortal Kombat. However, for fans of Eilish or Cameron, it’s clearly going to be a treat.

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