It’s rare to receive films about artists that are as intimate as the new documentary about Billie Eilish, The World’s a Little Blurry. Then again, there are few artists as open to sharing their every move as Eilish is. She’s not craving attention, she just understands how difficult it is to be a teenager, and discussing these struggles can help the many fans who idolize her. The film is a generally sympathetic portrait of Eilish, who spends the documentary’s two-and-a-half hour runtime adjusting to a life in the spotlight. She’s quite literally one of the most famous people on the planet, and the film, directed by R.J. Cutler, does a great job capturing her transition from teen icon to global superstar.
The film, which is streaming exclusively on Apple TV+, is less focused on big moments than the tiny ones that make up the life of a superstar. Cutler and his crew meticulously document Eilish’s everyday life: her struggles with her health, her failing relationship with her boyfriend, her extremely tight family unit, and her process of learning to drive. There are a ton of chill-inducing moments, like when Eilish gets ushered to the stage for her Coachella headlining spot. There are also occasional moments where Eilish snaps, like when a meet-and-greet with people connected to her label, Interscope, rubs her the wrong way. It appears to be an honest portrait of Eilish, which is increasingly rare in a landscape that lets celebrities have final cut. It’s what we’ve come to expect from Billie Eilish, one of the most honest and vulnerable musicians working today. Yes, she’s larger than life, but she’s also still a kid. The documentary does a good job of reminding us that she’s still growing.
After watching the film, we put together a list of 11 takeaways that stood out after an initial viewing. Dive in below and watch the documentary for yourself here.
Between her relationship with her brother, Finneas, and her extremely close relationships to her mother and father, Eilish makes it clear throughout the documentary that she wouldn’t have the career she does if it wasn’t for her support system. Her father helps her learn how to drive, while her mother offers advice on how to navigate meet-and-greets and tackle challenging subjects. Eilish and Finneas were encouraged to make music from a young age, and that room for creativity helped Billie turn into the star she is today.
For most of us, studying for the permit test (and eventually getting our licenses) is pressure-filled enough. But for Eilish, she had to study while prepping WHEN WE FALL ASLEEP. She passed both her permit test and her driving test (she got a sick Dodge Challenger), and turned in a pretty decent album, too.
While writing WHEN WE FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, Finneas had the unenviable task of acting as a middle man between the label and Billie. During the early parts of her career, Billie associated hit songs as a form of selling out, far from her “woke” sensibilities, as her mother humorously described. Finneas was tasked with edging Billie towards hit territory, without her ever knowing that they were writing to appease the head of A&R at Interscope. Obviously, with the album’s success, the two achieved the goal of churning out hits, but Finneas had to navigate giving the label marketable songs, while helping Billie maintain her artistic integrity.
From recording to promotion, Eilish has final say in every aspect of her career. After a less-than-stellar relationship with a music video director, Eilish decided that she would direct her own videos in the future. When it was time to promote the album, WHEN WE FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, Eilish had final say as to what the billboards nationwide would look like. From top to bottom, nothing in Eilish’s world gets done without her approval. She’s a true auteur for the modern age.
During the early part of the documentary, Billie and Finneas are working hard to get the songs that will go on WHEN WE FALL ASLEEP together. After discussing the need for a commercial hit or two, Billie talks about how she hates the process of songwriting. Finneas, also preternaturally talented as a songwriter, assures her that she’s talented with the pen, but she constantly complains about her inability as a writer. It doesn’t help, she mentions, that Finneas is so brilliant.
Billie Eilish knows everything about Justin Bieber. She knows where he was born, what hospital he was born in, and what time he was born. She was a true Belieber, even crying as a kid because she thought she’d never find a boyfriend she loved as much as Bieber. When she finally met him at Coachella, she ran away from him, only to return and stare at him before eventually giving him a hug. That hug lasted long enough for Eilish to cry in his arms, obviously moved by meeting her childhood hero. When she took home a number of Grammys for WHEN WE FALL ASLEEP, Bieber was one of the first to congratulate her with a FaceTime video.
When Billie was battling shin splints and a deteriorating body on tour, she was worried that she’d have to give up music for good. It terrified her, in part, because she talked about how she had to quit everything she’s ever enjoyed doing. Her dance career ended early, due to a number of injuries, and she still pines for the days when she was able to express herself through movement. Luckily for all of us, she’s persevered as a songwriter and performer.
The process of creating WHEN WE FALL ASLEEP was so cumbersome for Billie, that in a discussion with her mother she half-jokingly said that WHEN WE FALL ASLEEP would be her last. “I’m not gonna make another album,” she said, after her mother mentioned the prospect of future work.
At Coachella, Katy Perry and her husband, Billie Eilish superfan Orlando Bloom, really wanted to meet the young star. Eilish was friendly, hugging Perry and accepting compliments from the couple. When she went back to her bus, someone mentioned that her husband was Will Turner from Pirates of the Carribean. It was only then that she realized who she had just met. “I wanna meet him again!” she exclaimed. She laughed, before adding, “I thought that was just some dude Katy Perry met.” Before her set, though, she ran into Bloom again, who offered encouragement and an oddly large number of kisses on her cheek.
In a brief moment in the documentary, Billie is shown playing Uno with Denzel before a tour date. The two toured together, and Denzel had Billie help out on the chorus for “Sirens” from TA13OO. It’s cool to see the two on-screen together, and Curry’s inclusion in the documentary has us thrilled to see what he and Eilish do next.
Throughout the documentary, Billie is recording wherever she can. It’s fitting, considering her and Finneas recorded WHEN WE FALL ASLEEP in her bedroom, and it was mastered in a living room, but it’s still impressive how adaptable Eilish is to her environment. After a show in what we can assume was 2019, Eilish and her brother immediately went to the green room to finish the writing process for her James Bond song, “No Time to Die.” Of course, the film has been delayed because of the pandemic, but Eilish and Finneas had to finish a draft of the song to send to the production team that night. So, they boarded Billie’s tour bus, where she laid down vocals for the song, although not before admitting that she hates “belting” her vocals, and that the internet would make fun of her for it.
