Justin Bieber: Our World review — A missed opportunity at making an incisive pandemic concert movie

Language: English

We have seen Justin Bieber a lot. Like, a LOT. It is not enough to consider the very public growth of his phenomenon which we have all admired and applauded from afar, earning the multi-Grammy winning Prince of Pop significant coverage for both his work and his personal life. His rise coincided with the YouTube and social media explosion the world over, making him one of the earliest megastars to have benefited from the internet.

Bieber has been seen on the big screen in the 3D concert film Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011) and its sequel Justin Bieber’s Believe (2013), as well as Justin Bieber: Seasons (2020). His cameos in other musicians’ films like Katy Perry: Part of Me and Zendaya: Behind the Scenes, or his appearances in movies like Zoolander 2, Lip Sync Battle, and a few others are not consequential to this article but mention should be made for the sake of clarity. His debut album was released in 2010, by which point Bieber was already a teen sensation at the brink of the vocal metamorphosis that puberty brings with it.

In his 11-year career, he has had three behind-the-scenes docu-movies that recount different concert journeys, one of which even offering an honest glimpse into his struggles with Lyme’s disease, drug addiction, and mental stress.

So we really have seen a lot of him talking about himself, people around him and industry legends talking about him. Somewhere in the midst of all this, he has apparently been hacked, and photos of his member have — not once, but — twice made it to the public domain. If you thought that by this point we would be done with all the Bieber blabber, and there is not much left for him to flash us with, you can rest assured that Bieber would find a way to talk about himself.

That, my friends, is why we now have Justin Bieber: Our World, the newly-released concert documentary chronicling the preparations and runup to his 31 December, 2020 gig T-Mobile Presents New Year’s Eve Live With Justin Bieber, that was streamed live. Given what an unprecedented year 2020 was, the circumstances under which this concert was put together were understandably unique. Devoid of the usual multiple crews that work on such events, COVID-19 protocols demanded a more stripped-down approach, with a focus on social distancing and creating a safety bubble for those involved. Anyone in the live entertainment space will attest what a herculean task that would be.

This New Year’s Eve concert at Beverly Hilton Hotel, Los Angeles, would be his first after he cancelled the last 14 of his Purpose world tour in 2017 to protect his mental health, following a series of incidents that showed him in a negative light (punching a fan and driving his Lambo being amongst them). It did appear at one point that his life was spiralling out of control, and the time to regroup himself was definitely a wise move for someone who has spent so much of his life publicly. Therefore, getting himself inspired to break the shackles of a worldwide lockdown and working on a concert to be live-streamed certainly calls for being documented, one would imagine.

[caption id=“attachment_10026971” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Justin Bieber performs during the Triller Fight Club Night at Mercedes Benz Stadium on Saturday, April 17, 2021, in Atlanta. (Photo by Robb Cohen/Invision/AP)[/caption]

The opening shot of the documentary finds Bieber waking up and reaching for his phone to capture the moment. Anticipating the collective eyerolling of his audience, director Michael D Ratner (who has collaborated many times before for documentaries and videos) gives us the disclaimer that Bieber is self-capturing in order to offer his fans a holistic look at the concert preparations in light of working with a much smaller crew.

An assortment of people, including choreographers, directors, security and tech personnel, musicians, and dancers, all wax eloquent about how much of a family man he is, what loyalty means to him, and sound in awe of his growth from boy wonder to the international man of pop. Yes, grown-up he has because Bieber does sound wiser as he speaks with gratitude for getting work at such a difficult time, for having a wife like Hailey who keeps him rooted, and for his close crew that has stayed with him for over 10 years.

But of the almost 94-minute documentary, the most humane parts last no more than 10 minutes cumulatively. Granted that this is a concert film, but it desperately needed editing of the performance portions because one is frequently left with the feeling of wanting the documentary to move on. At one point, it resembled Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! , somewhere around the halfway mark when the concert performances strung on endlessly, occasionally realising that some more behind-the-scenes action is required. In fact, the far and few times they have tech bytes, it provides an interesting insight into how they conceptualised the stage, considered weight issues of being on the roof, designing the backdrop to capture the natural scenery, and more.

These helped recreate the milestone that the concert streaming actually was, but we got so little of this that we just had to contend with Bieber on stage and women cheering for him from the balconies of the hotel.

And the occasional laser show.

Bieber and crew were confronted with a host of issues ranging from organising this during a pandemic, having a crew member test positive with 21 days left for the show, unexpected thunder and rain just a few days before the concert, and a delay in the actual starting of the gig because the streaming site crashed thanks to too many people signing in at the same time. With this much drama going on and Bieber himself emerging from months of being cooped up, the director’s vision to give these moments the gravitas they deserve was inexplicably absent. Barring the site crashing, everything else is glossed over in a few sentences because for some reason, they thought we would prefer to simply watch a string of Bieber concert videos.

Then again, when you have exhausted so much time in creating various documentaries about him, there would come a point when you have little else to say. Sadly, circumstantially, this documentary had so much more going for Bieber to be projected as the man he is said to have grown into.

Instead, we get the millennial level over-conscious projection of self and a choir of sycophancy. I have seen Instagram Reels with more substance than this. Hailey’s perspective is so limited even though she appears frequently in the visuals. If he has grown up, and is prepared for the next phase in his life and career, perhaps those who are strategising his career or advising him when he comes up with creative inputs, can remind themselves of that.

He is 27 for God’s sake. Start treating him like that.

Justin Bieber: Our World is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Watch the trailer here

Senior journalist Lakshmi Govindrajan Javeri has spent a good part of two decades chronicling the arts, culture and lifestyles