You Should See Me in a Movie

No matter how many horror movies or heart-wrenching dramas you see this year, I'm not sure you'll see a darker, more harrowing scene than the one in the new BILLIE EILISH documentary in which her mother walks in on her while she's curled up with a notebook writing a song about killing herself. "Are you seriously implying that you'd jump off the roof?," her mother, MAGGIE, asks. Billie nods yes. "Do you feel OK about a song like that?," mom, who's offscreen, asks. "I feel like it's something I wanna have said," Billie answers. "This song is the reason I don't—like having this way of saying it instead of doing it is better." And then, while the song continues to play, director R.J CUTLER cuts to Billie and her producer/collaborator brother FINNEAS, presumably moments later, staring directly at his camera and goofing around like they've just finished a song about baby giraffes. "Do you like this song?," Finneas asks. "I love this song," Billie says. She giggles. Mom has disappeared. Saying it instead of doing it *is* better. Much, much better. And it's a fantastic song.

BILLIE EILISH: THE WORLD'S A LITTLE BLURRY is a beautiful documentary that moves like that for nearly two and a half hours, bouncing between high and low, light and dark, elation and depression, while Cutler's camera plays fly on the wall to a very real teenager doing very real teenage things (learning how to drive, doing laundry, texting her boyfriend, crushing on JUSTIN BIEBER) while also writing (really good) songs, touring the world and creating the first couple chapters of a not-so-typical career with the help of her brother and her doting parents. There's no narration and no plot except for the natural momentum of life moving in the direction of where anyone watching this documentary already knows it's headed. There's a lot of very real teenage pain—some of it extreme—and confusion, a lot of concerned parenting, a lot of screaming fans and a lot of indications that the teenager at the center of all of this, for all that confusion, for all that self-doubt, has a remarkably clear-headed understanding of what's going on around her and has her head screwed on impressively tight. Her story feels real and weirdly hopeful. It may leave you feeling—it's pretty much designed to leave you feeling—that pop is, for now, in very good hands. And, not incidentally, very believable hands.

"Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry" is streaming on Apple TV+.

Swinging Globes

Not to take the GOLDEN GLOBES seriously or anything, especially this year, but it was quite a night in quite a year for jazz and blues at the movies. The late CHADWICK BOSEMAN was named Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for his mesmerizing portrayal of the fictional trumpeter LEVEE GREEN in the real blues singer MA RAINEY's band in MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM, and ANDRA DAY took the Best Actress – Drama prize for her acclaimed turn in the title role in THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE HOLIDAY – beating out VIOLA DAVIS' Ma Rainey, among others. Best Original Score went to TRENT REZNOR, ATTICUS ROSS and JON BATISTE for the animated jazz feature SOUL, while Original Song honors went to DIANE WARREN, LAURA PAUSINI and NICCOLÒ AGLIARDI for the Italian-language power ballad "IO SÌ (SEEN)," from THE LIFE AHEAD.

Etc Etc Etc

The READING FESTIVAL sold out less than two days after organizers said it's actually going to happen in August, and only single-day tickets remain for its twin the LEEDS FESTIVAL, in case you were wondering if people were hungry to see live music again. They're not alone. But not everyone thinks this is a good idea... In Italy, meanwhile, more than 100 artists staged silent livestreams Saturday to raise awareness for the struggling live music industry. And rather elaborate silent livestreams at that, as the videos collected on this page make clear. Very much worth a look... I co-sign this tweet by Washington Post critic CHRIS RICHARDS so hard it hurts. (For further reading, see today's quote of the day, above.)... Pandemic notwithstanding, the US music biz enjoyed a fifth straight year of strong growth in 2020, powered almost entirely, of course, by streaming. There were 75.5 million paying subscribers to streaming music services in the US at year's end, up from 60.4 million in 2019. Also helping: The continuing boom in vinyl, which outsold CDs for the first time since 1986 (the year of WHITNEY HOUSTON's debut and BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN's LIVE/1975–85)... One more documentary for your watch list: EMMETT MALLOY's BIGGIE: I GOT A STORY TO TELL, chronicling the NOTORIOUS B.I.G.'s rise to fame, premieres today on Netflix.

Rest in Peace

"Ghetto fabulous" stylist DEREK KHAN... New York house DJ/producer ANGEL MORAES... British house DJ PETE ZORBA... IAN NORTH, founder of '70s power-pop band MILK 'N' COOKIES... Violinist and conductor YUVAL WALDMAN... Opera singer ANTOINE HODGE... Rolling Stone magazine's first managing editor, JOHN BURKS, who greatly expanded the magazine's scope.