Nice Band start a Movie: One Direction: This Is Us
Billed as an intimate all-access look at life on the road for the global music phenomenon, This Is Us follows the lives of the five members of the boy band, One Direction. It contains live concert footage from London’s O2 Arena, and footage from their lives pre- and post-X Factor appearance, and gives insight into the preparation for their concerts and ultimately what it is like to be One Direction.This Is Us was first announced by the band while on The Today Show in New York’s Rockefeller Plaza on 12 November 2012, followed by confirmation it would be directed by Morgan Spurlock. Spurlock, who unsuccessfully negotiated to direct similar films, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never and Katy Perry: Part of Me, said that he took on the film because of the band’s fast-track rise to stardom. The film started filming in Tokyo on 17 January 2013 and was being shot in 3D with 4K resolution RED Epic digital cameras, which Spurlock said gave a cinematic appeal. The film was later given the name One Direction: This Is Us on 19 March 2013, previously being referred to as 1D3D.
It has been further said that the film is not scripted, with the footage genuine and of them acting “naturally”. Styles admitted that the cameras following them around was scary but said that this film gives them the opportunity to show more personality, how they interact, and how they relax when not on stage. Niall Horan remarked[where?] that the film crew had access all areas, even filming them in the toilet.Scenes shown in trailers include footage of fans telling stories related to the band following a request posted on YouTube, as well as comment from Simon Cowell, who was their mentor on The X Factor and is also a producer of the film.
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This Is Us has received mixed reviews prior to release, currently holding a 67% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 75 reviews. The site commented that “It’s mostly for the converted, but One Direction: This Is Us will be fun for fans — and it offers just enough slickly edited concert footage to entertain the casual viewer.” and a 49/100 rating on Metacritic, signifying “mixed or average reviews”.The Seattle Times gave it an average rating of 2 stars (out of 4), Roger Moore felt “It’s not that different from the Justin Bieber doc, or the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus concert films — sanitized, packaged — presenting these five British or Irish boys, ages 19-21, as paragons of pop virtue while others vouch for what “rebels” they are and that they have ‘edge.'” finally adding “It’s a chipper, cheerful portrait with nary a discouraging word in it. The tunes are catchy, and the boys have charm, a little wit about them and some stage presence even if their shows have all the spontaneity of a McDonald’s menu. Not that their fans want to hear that, or hear that they have a limited shelf life. Oh no. They never let us forget that it’s a teenage girls’ world. We’re all just wearing earplugs in it.” New York Daily News gave a more positive rating of 3 out of 5 stars.
Jim Farber felt “To their credit, the guys decided to devote more than half the film to backstage antics and talk, as opposed to Justin Bieber, whose live 3—D film nervously stuck to the stage. While One Direction come off as fun and likable, no one will mistake their quips for the inspired absurdism of the Beatles in A Hard Day’s Night.” Nor will they take Spurlock’s routine camera work for the pop-art panache of Richard Lester. The Washington Post; film critic Stephanie Merry felt “To add a bit of emotion, the film hears from the boys’ mothers and follows the five as they take a break from touring to return home. But for the most part, the movie embraces harmless fun, which can be enjoyable for the audience members, whether they’re 1D fans or not” finally adding “Some of the guys have made gossip rag headlines for their wild ways, including drunken behavior, but there’s no hint of that here… Maybe showing those details carries the risk of alienating One Direction’s fans. When the guys sing “I’m in love with you” the “you” is meant to be each starry-eyed listener. But the absence of certain truths makes the movie feel more like marketing material for superheroes than a comprehensive documentary about human dimension. If One Direction fans end up having inordinately high standards when it comes to love, Spurlock is at least partly to blame.”
The A.V. Club gave the film a grade of B-, A.A. Dowd felt “For the most part, though, This Is Us plays like a victory lap for its adolescent stars, five best friends surprisingly aware that their fame and fortune won’t last forever. More delusional is the agreed-upon conclusion that the band wouldn’t succeed if it was missing even a single one of its largely interchangeable members. Who do these kids think they are, The Beatles? Actually, Spurlock makes that connection more than once—first by noting that One Direction has conquered the world even faster than its Liverpool predecessors, second by casting the new British invaders in a loose A Hard Day’s Night homage.”. Chicago Sun-Times’s Bill Zwecker felt “My major issue with “One Direction: This Is Us” is the use of distracting 3-D effects that feel forced. And the insertion of animation during some of the concert footage come off as jarring and kind of amateurish. That said, the film is a successful witness to the great charm possessed by all five members of One Direction. I loved it when they were seen as the kids they still are, horsing around with their stage crew and bodyguards — joyfully letting off steam as they careen backstage on a forklift they’ve “hijacked.””.A more negative review came from The Telegraph, Robbie Collin felt “This Is Us has been made with these fans in mind, and there’s nothing like a guaranteed profit to stifle creativity. This isn’t a problem peculiar to manufactured pop, either: there is a Morrissey concert film coming out later this week that makes One Direction: This Is Us look like Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz.”. The New York Times also gave it a negative review, Miriam Bale felt “With a group so evidently versed in the visuals of rock history, it’s a shame that a filmmaker wasn’t hired who would pay homage to classic pop films instead of offering a satisfactory paid promotional. In the end credits — Richard Lester-style scenes of the boys in costumes doing pranks — we see how this film might have been more successful: as an obvious fiction starring these appealing personalities rather than a tame and somewhat fake documentary.”Audiences responded positively, garnering the film a 79% audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Viewers who saw the film on the opening Thursday, gave the average grade of A, according to market research firm CinemaScore. The audience was 87% female, and 65% under the age of 17.
