By Glenn Dunks
Reviewing a concert film can be tricky. The lines between what is merely a good concert with good music can become blurred with what is a good film. A concert film can quite easily be one and not the other (I will save you the examples), but to decipher what is what is an equation that it is all too easy to flub the maths on.
In the case of Beyoncé’s Homecoming, the numbers are a bit easier to put together as the film is more up front about its craft – tricky use of editing (those yellow/pink switches!!), the use of retro cinematography filters (Coachella ain’t Woodstock), scripted narration and so on. However, even when trying to filter out the rhetoric that often comes along as baggage with her, it’s easy to see that Homecoming belongs among the list of great concert documentaries.
It’s a joyous and exciting collage of sound and image from a moment in cultural history, a captivating two hours and 17 minutes.
Now, that isn’t to say that the film is not extremely calculated and manipulative. The multi-hyphenate who is here on performing, producing, writing and directing duties (the latter alongside Ed Burke) is no less performing for us the viewer as “BEYONCÉ” than Madonna was in Truth or Dare. It’s just that she trades frank discussions of sex, fame, family and identity for those of race, personal truth and empowerment. But that's why it works. She's finally more than just a singer with bops. Naturally, some will try to make you believe it’s less superficial than Madonna’s film as is the want of contemporary pop culture. More authentic. More important. They would be wrong and don’t let anybody try to convince you otherwise. They are both politically and socially relevant with thrilling stage performances and glimpses of the quote unquote “real” person behind it. Beyoncé just doesn’t perform oral sex on a beer bottle.
As a movie-watching experience, Homecoming could have shaved a few tracks from its playlist. Especially since most of the songs have not been reworked or remixed. The peaks of the setlist are obviously still great, but there is so much here that parts inevitably come off as filler. Certainly, some of them could have been nixed in favor of seeing more of the backstage and behind the scenes efforts that went into putting together this two-night Coachella extravaganza. We get the briefest of tidbits about the impressive sets, the fab costumes, and the exhaustive process of developing the extensive choreography. The finished product is a just reward, but there's something of a small missed opportunity to bring her fans closer into the world of how Beyoncé puts on a show.
But what the movie does best of all is continue what Beyoncé started with the Lemonade film that aired on HBO in 2016 and put forward an idea of the performer that is far beyond what we have seen from her public persona over the last 15 years. Even as a die-hard Destiny’s Child fan, I often found her solo career somewhat frustrating – like a contestant on Project Runway or RuPaul’s Drag Race who does great, often even brilliant work, and yet is just missing something that makes them as fascinating as their work. Lemonade changed that musically and politically and now Homecoming is the final stamp. A genuine leap in her skills as a musician and a creative. A homecoming – or more accurately, a graduation – of her own as a performer that I am thankful we have memorialised on film and done so in a way that captures the thrill of her Coachella set and the power of her music’s messages where she speaks of Historical Black Colleges and Universities and black history. Their impact on her (although she did not attend) and her collaborators is clear. She has put on a show of pride and I relished it, learning almost as much as I was entertained.
Lastly, since the film is ultimately a memorandum on Beyoncé herself, it’s perhaps worth mentioning that Beyoncé is two years younger than Madonna was when she released Ray of Light over two decades ago. If people think she will escape the ageism and misogyny that comes to women in entertainment, then I suspect they have another thing coming. At least Homecoming will be a shining beacon of everything she was capable of.
Release: Currently streaming on Netflix.
Oscar Chances: Ineligible most likely, but the Emmy's will surely bite.