Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry

The World’s a Little Blurry hews close to the Eilish mythology, yet still offers a rare glimpse behind the making of a teen pop star.

RJ Cutler's film runs for two hours and 20 minutes, plus a discretionary intermission, and nothing in it suggests it should have been over half that length.

She's very talented, as is her brother, musically. Lovely, lovely voice.

It's a great L.A. story and a fascinating look at how one becomes a musical superstar in this world where things like Spotify and SoundCloud are perhaps more important than getting signed to a big record deal.

I first balked at its 2 1/2-hour running time, but Cutler's epic earns every second, showing us an artist who is frank, confident, vulnerable and anxiety-ridden by the need to be "perfect."

There is a vast wealth of entertaining work in the form, but it's almost never free to speak its mind. That said, this overlong film by the experienced R. J. Cutler is haunting and engaging.

R.J. Cutler's documentary is an honest and frank documentation of a sensational young woman and her ability to withstand all the clutter to produce and connect to a generation of people through her voice.

None of this proves either immediately satisfying or cinematically impressive enough to justify the film's extended 140-minute runtime.

With a risky runtime of 140 minutes, the film never feels overlong, as it strikes a skilled balance between a fulfilling fan service and a verité epitome of the contemporary music industry as experienced by its prodigy in the spotlight.

While curious onlookers and casual fans will no doubt enjoy TWALBB, the super fans - those looking for the source of her midnight-dark narratives - might have to wait a bit longer for the Invisiline-rocking 16 year-old to let us in on the secret.