By: Murielle Tanchanco and Currie Cator

There’s a strange emptiness that comes after a concert ends. The adrenaline fades, the lights go down; and suddenly, you’re left replaying moments in your head while scrolling through blurry videos on your phone. Somehow, Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour in Live 3D managed to fill that void. More than a concert film, it became a temporary cure for post-concert depression, a chance to relive the emotional chaos of experiencing Billie Eilish all over again. 

What makes the film work is how immersive it is. It never feels like you’re simply watching Billie take the stage from a distance, but as if she’s performing directly for you. The intimate camera work by mega filmmaker James Cameron — coupled with the documentary’s emotional pacing, sound design, and experimental techniques like the use of a “loop” at one point when Billie asked the audience to stay quiet as she sings — pull viewers into her world so naturally that the line between the artist and the audience almost disappears. 

From time to time, Billie would hold the camera herself, creating the illusion that we’re seeing everything through her. In between performances, behind-the-scenes vignettes will be shown on screen with the 24-year-old singer, where she talks about the making of the concert, like how she would choose a color to represent her every song. There were moments when Billie would share random stories, like how she and her crew would rescue and adopt dogs from her tour; and other times, about her personal love for art. This element goes beyond the cookie-cutter untouchable pop star treatment we often get from concert films; rather, it captures Billie as someone human, vulnerable, and real.

And the concept of making the documentary 3D — a signature of Billie’s co-director, Cameron — just made it seem more raw and personal. It makes you feel like you’re enveloped inside the film, except you won’t get how it truly feels unless you’re actually there. It didn’t help that the cinema was filled with Billie’s fans. Throughout the film, they would loudly sing along and cheer to her songs, and even hold up their flashlights when the audiences inside the documentary would. It was definitely not like any other screening, with the crowd going as far as creating their own version of a mosh pit at the bottom of the big screen to party to her hit, Birds of a Feather.

Ultimately, in this concert film, Billie holds the spotlight on her own loud and proud, without any backup musicians or dancers and extravagant theatrics. And her taking the stage in her usual baggy, athletic outfit? It sends a clear message to women, as she said it herself to young, aspiring girls close to the end of the documentary: “You don’t have to be feminine [….] just to be a woman.” 

Hit Me Hard or Soft, but Billie really hit the right note in connecting with her audience; and this concert film is a testament to how far her music has reached through the years.