Decades from now people will insist they were there. They’ll say they were standing on that desert field at Coachella on April 14, 2018, when Beyonce Knowles delivered a performance for the ages. It will be the Woodstock or Live Aid of its time. If you weren’t there you’ll insist to your grandchildren or nephews or nieces you were. That’s because it was a show that went beyond the lofty expectations her fans, critics or the larger entertainment audience who had trekked out from Los Angeles (including many of her peers) had. And trust, the expectations were lofty. The resulting 90 minutes was a pop culture moment that Beyonce will find hard to top for the rest of her career. I know because I was actually lucky enough to be there that first weekend. Like the thousands of people watching behind me and on the official live stream I’ll never forget it.
Approximately a year later and timed for release between the first and second weekends of this year’s Coachella Festival, Beyonce has produced and directed a document of what turned out to be eight months of pre-production and rehearsal for two performances. “Homecoming: A Film by Beyonce” is absolutely at its best when it chronicles the performances from those two nights. The rest is a tease into the private life Beyonce has cultivated since the group that launched her to stardom, Destiny’s Child, disbanded in 2006. A sneak peek that leaves you with often more creative questions than you might expect from such a project. First, though, some context.
READ MORE: “Beyonce Homecoming” trailer: Go behind-the-scenes- of her Coachella performance
The 23-time Grammy winner was originally supposed to perform at Coachella in 2017 but had to drop out due to a surprise pregnancy (Lady Gaga filled in as her replacement). The Houston native gave birth to twins on June 13, 2017. One of the new revelations from the film is that she had to have an emergency c-section because the heartbeat of one of her twins had “paused” (both of her children are fine and healthy today). This ended up complicating her training after she had already committed to perform at the next iteration of the Indio, California music festival 10 months later.
At first, “Homecoming” seems as though it is going to truly let you behind the curtain of Beyonce’s personal life. And perhaps, in her opinion, it does. We watch her first dance rehearsal where she admits she weighs 218 pounds after her pregnancy (she is reportedly just 5’7, but still looks incredible at that weight because, hey, she’s Beyonce) and there is a montage that counts down the hundreds of days of physical training she endures as she slims down to her familiar figure. She also makes sure her fans know she had to drop milk, meat, alcohol and carbs from her diet to get there (one of the films bigger laughs is when she admits at one point how “hungry” she is). Somewhat disappointingly, those are really the only details you wouldn’t have expected to learn before screening the film.
The documentary aspect of “Homecoming” is, unfortunately, weak. Beyonce speaks to the viewer only in voice-over and usually with an audio distortion to make it sounds somewhat far away. That allows her narration to slip in seamlessly with excerpts from noted figures such as Nina Simone and Maya Angelou but also manages to still keep a distance. When she’s seen working on the show talking to her collaborators, dancers or musicians it makes it clear this was her vision, but she only truly articulates it without us seeing her speaking about it. She never speaks directly to the camera. We don’t get to see the passion she has speaking about her work, that’s left for the stage.
The Coachella performance featured over 100 musicians and dancers of all different shapes and sizes and they spent months preparing for the show. Beyonce tells us that the musical aspects of the show took four months to break down while the choreography was another four months after that. She rented three movie studio sound stages in Los Angeles. One for the musicians, one for the dancers and stage and a third for the crafts (costumes, etc.). The movie gives a very small look at these participants. This was, however, a production. And the members of her show were committed. A few speak to the camera, but they are never identified by name. We meet one dancer who is excited her baby is along the ride for the adventure. We meet another who is thankful they cast girls who were thicker than most dancers. We see her team’s excitement driving out to the festival and, weeks earlier, we see Beyonce let them know it’s not good enough yet and there’s more work to do. Maybe truly telling their stories would demand another documentary, but it feels more like an afterthought here than it should.
Then, of course, there is the show itself.
“Homecoming” cuts between the Coachella performances and the behind-the-scenes portions. Thousands? Millions? Who knows how many viewers have seen footage of one part of another from the first weekend’s show, but this film spectacularly chronicles it for the ages. The film cuts between the first weekend often referred to as the “yellow” performance, and the second, noted as the “pink” performance, based on the color of the outfits the dancers and musicians wear. This often results in some incredible editing between the two nights (it also helps cover up the problems Beyonce had with her costume at the end of the first show).
The details this footage picks up compared to the live stream are incredible. Costumes that are stoned to the gods are displayed in their full HD brilliance. Moments where Beyonce plays with her dancers or reacts to the audience that were lost in the live stream edit or from the second show illuminate the magnetism of her personal performance (an overhead shot of when she throws a towel to a euphoric fan from the pink performance is a massive highlight). The precision of the choreography and the artistry of the musicians are even more incredible on screen than in person. Her message of black excellence, the cultural power of black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and the fact she was the first black woman to headline Coachella (something she notably calls out) is transcendent as a piece of performance art. Somewhat missing though is how she got there.
In the aforementioned narration, Beyonce discusses how in her childhood going to see Battle of the Bands and performances by HBCU marching bands were something she always looked forward to. She notes how she always wanted to go to an HBCU but her college experience became her years traveling with Destiny’s Child around the world. In the film, she notes, “So many people who are culturally aware and intellectually sound are graduates from historically black colleges and universities, including my father. There is something incredibly important about the HBCU experience that must be celebrated and protected” (this quote was also intentionally included in the film’s official press release).
What we don’t get many details on are why she chose, for example, the context of how her hits would be performed in this specific direction. She tells the viewer she was part of every detail of the show. Why not dive into that thought process more? Why not explain the yellow and pink color schemes? Or the military fatigues as part of the first show? The audience can surely speculate, but if this is a document of her artistic vision why not even touch on a few of these choices? This portion of the film only skims the surface of it. Perhaps combining the two performances and the behind-the-scenes creative process needed two films to properly tell the complete story of her achievement. Maybe she’ll revisit it someday and do so. In the present, however, we can gaze upon the show itself and be swept away in its glory. Film [B+] Performance Portions [A+]
“Homecoming: A film by Beyonce” is now available on Netflix.