Justin Bieber! That name will cause people to scream for two different reasons. A teeny-bopper will scream with ecstasy and a serious music fan will scream in fear. Many will view Justin Bieber: Never Say Never as a docco that sounds so bad the United Nations should be outlawing it for its potential to be used a torture device. Yet the strange thing is that inside Justin Beiber: Never Say Never is a good docco screaming to be set free.
Justin Beiber: Never Say Never follows the energetic Beiber for ten days in the lead-up to his biggest concert to date at a sold out Madison Square Gardens… the pinnacle for musicians worldwide. It charts his early life, born to a teenage Mum in Canada, being a talented muso as a child, finding global success on YouTube, finally landing a manager and even meeting and impressing worldwide superstar, Usher (Killers, In The Mix). Oh yes and there is tons of footage of him performing with the likes of Bys II Men, Miley Cyrus (The Last Song, TV’S Hanna Montana), Jaden Smith (The Karate Kid, The Day The Earth Stood Still)… and of course Usher.
Yet it is what is missing from this docco that drags it down from being good to just okay. Things that would be interesting to the audience, like how bad was it for his teenage Mum bringing him up and what is his relationship with his father like, is skirted over to make way for the MTV publicity machine to chick in more on-stage footage of Bieber trying to get romantic with a disinterested Miley Cyrus. The ultimate slap-in-the-face for the audience comes when his manager, Scooter Braun, recalls a story of Madonna talking about Michael Jackson’s life being ruined because he lost his childhood and Bieber turning to him and saying ‘Please don’t let that happen to me”, and then there is no follow-up to the statement. The most poignant line of the film and it’s treated as an uninteresting throwaway line.
Having said that though this docco may change some people’s thoughts on Bieber. It is obvious from some of the footage shown that he has talent as a musician… he just needs somebody to write him some decent songs. The film also shows his strong Christian background, his hard-working ethic and the fact he hates to disappoint his fans… brilliantly illustrated by the fact he is physically upset when he has to cancel events because of a bad throat.
While this film may change some people’s opinion of Bieber, at the end of the day it is just an okay docco that could have been much better. Young musos will see how hard the popstar lifestyle can be, but other important topics are simply just glanced over, while the whole film is held together by some unremarkable concert footage. Director, Jon Chu (Step Up 3D, Step Up 2: The Streets) really needs to go back to film school and learn what elements make a docco truly great.
Year: 2011
Director: John Schultz
Stars: Jordana Beatty, Heather Graham, Parris Mosteller, Preston Bailey, Garrett Ryan, Taylar Hender
Classification: G
Runtime: 105 mins
Rating: