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The music documentary is almost a right of passage for any musician. They always come in waves - in the 90s with the boom of MTV, we started to see more and more behind-the-scenes footage from the hottest artists. Then in 2011 'Justin Bieber: Never Say Never' was released and then we got a surge of these in cinemas. But of course where we're now at with streaming the music doco has once again exploded: 'Jonas Brothers' on Amazon, 'Billie Eilish' on Apple TV+, 'Taylor Swift' on Netflix, the list goes on. Today, 'Lil Nas X' joins this ever-growing list.
This film documents 'Lil Nas X' on his first headlining tour, 'Long Live Montero'. The film follows the North American leg of the tour and we get to see behind the footage, performances and conversations with his friends and family.
'Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero' is purely for fans of Lil Nas's music, because it isn't a time capsule of his journey in the music industry, it's just following the tour, so it falls flat when compared to other music documentaries; it feels lacking. Having said that, as a fan I did quite enjoy the film. It gave some great behind-the-scenes and it was cool to see some professionally shot footage of the concert. It's a slight step up from the footage I filmed on my phone.
The highlights of the film are the candid conversations Lil Nas shares about his career. There are some beautiful conversations about being queer in the industry and coming out.
The highlights of the film are the candid conversations Lil Nas shares about his career. There are some beautiful conversations about being queer in the industry, coming out and the challenges of people out in front of family but still having distance from them and relying on friendships. These moments are sure to resonate with a lot of younger fans and I highly recommend the documentary for these moments alone.
'Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero' is purely for fans. It's too focused on the tour to really get into who Lil Nas X is and his journey. It feels like glorified behind-the-scenes footage that would be included on DVD packaged with the album. That's not a bad thing, but when you start to compare it with all the other music documentaries we have right now that give these raw looks at these artists, it just doesn't compare.
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