When they named this concert film Never Say Never, who knew that that would be a mantra? The film is named after a Justin Bieber song, but it also captures my reaction succinctly. I never thought a silly over-produced documentary designed to capitalize on the height of a pop star's fame could make me sympathize with someone like Bieber. Well, never say never.
Unless Step Up 3D and League of Extraordinary Dancers director Jon Chu is an unsuspecting master of subtlety, the parts of Never Say Never that I really liked seems to come out unintentionally more than anything. The film has a distancing effect by not interviewing Bieber directly. It puts together a story based on interviews with his “handlers”: his vocal coach, his stylist, the bodyguard who is the closest thing he has to an older brother, and a grown man whose job is to literally entertain Justin so he won’t get bored during tours. If you read between the lines, it’s a pretty harrowing story of a little boy with no trace of real happiness.
In what is an egregious example of burying the lead, the film divulges the underdog story of Bieber’s mother, who became pregnant at the age of eighteen and had to raise Justin as a low-income single mom by rotating between several minimum wage jobs, but doesn’t mention much about his father (who married another woman and fathered two kids with her) aside from the fact that he left. And yet, he inexplicably appears at Bieber’s 2010 Madison Square Garden concert, looking as fly and groomed as Kevin Federline on his good days, rubbing elbows with celebrities backstage and posing for fans with his arm around Justin’s mom. What little context is actually displayed makes the whole thing feel disingenuous when Justin claims to have a “great relationship” with his dad, or when the camera cuts to Mr. Bieber crying proudly in the audience during one of the song numbers. It’s doubtful that this was the intention, but it does generate a sympathetic look at the star’s humble beginnings, further exacerbated by footage of how tightly all of his actions are controlled by the people who manage his fame. Even his attachment to Twitter, which is supposed to be a freeing outlet to air his thoughts, becomes just another tool in satiating his fanbase.
Just a few weeks ago, I'd reviewed Never Say Never's ancestor: the Bob Dylan documentary Dont Look Back that was the first of its kind. I mentioned how there's very little trace of artifice to Pennebaker's portrayal of Dylan, to the point of being unflattering. It's very much the opposite here, with Jon Chu (and presumably Bieber's label) circumventing anything that would show Bieber in a less than stellar light. There are dubious moments like Bieber stopping to watch a little girl busking on the very same street he used to busk years earlier as a guitar-strapped tot. Bieber tells her this, then instructs her to always follow her dream. After all, it worked wonders for him.
That moment exemplifies the slick, shiny, structured feel of this documentary that gives the whole thing the plastic texture that prevents it from really telling us the Justin Bieber story. It feels more like a publicity reel to propagate the Bieber hype than the true insight that a documentary can be. And it’s not like there was no potential for it: Bieber’s rise-to-fame story is arguably far more interesting and relevant to the cultural zeitgeist than other pop stars of his level. The opening credits reflect this—a simulated computer screen browses viral videos of recent years on YouTube until it hits the video of a tween boy singing in his living room. A nobody from small town Canada would’ve stayed that way if it wasn’t for the existence of YouTube and social media. Instead, he becomes the sweeper of teenage legs worldwide.
I’m guilty of dismissing his music and chuckling at the Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber tumblr like any other person above the age of fourteen, but I’ve never found a compelling reason to produce the bile so many of us throw at Justin Bieber. Never Say Never is a puff piece for fans that won’t be the turning point for haters, but it at least cements the position that the vitriol directed at him is mostly a product of his popularity, and not at all self-inviting. The usual ready-made criticisms of pop stars being corporate inventions don’t seem to apply to him, as Bieber’s hard work from nothing to where he is now is well-documented in the public eye—a star for the age of diminishing privacy.
Never Say Never was originally going to be directed by Davis Guggenheim (Deadwood, An Inconvenient Truth) but he had to drop out of the project to focus on his award-winning expose of the American education system Waiting for Superman. Can you imagine what that film would have been like?
Blu-ray Bonus Features
You would think that something as fan-oriented as this would deck the release with plenty of extras. It’s actually relatively scant, but would probably be a blessing for those Bieb-obsessed. There’s a full performance of the song “Favorite Girl” and Bieber’s back-up dancers doing a dance-off (instead of the whole concert), an extended scene of Bieber’s people giving out free tickets to girls outside the arena, and a not-at-all creepy footage of Justin Bieber getting a haircut.
"Justin Bieber: Never Say Never" is on sale May 13, 2011 and is rated G. Concert-Film, Documentary. Directed by John Chu. Starring Justin Bieber.
