Ariana Grande recently collaborated with Netflix to do a documentary about her Sweetener tour. The documentary was entitled, ariana grande: excuse me, i love you. The world wide tour began March 2019 and ended December 2019.
This film revealed performance after performance to fans watching. It was very different from the artist documentaries I have seen before. Similarly to Beyoncé’s Homecoming, the entire film was a massive concert with tidbits of behind the scene moments. However, the behind the scene moments were short and didn’t reveal too much of the process. It acted as a way to shoutout the cast and crew but didn’t reveal anything about the concepts, struggles, or preparation of the tour.
The performances were incredible and filled with nothing but energy and excellent vocals. Grande performed songs from all of her albums with an obvious focus on Sweetener and thank u, next. The transitions between songs were great and the added solos and concert specific variations in the song were very well done adding a custom flair to everything. The stage was beautiful and the dancers hit every mark. The shows didn’t seem to convey any story and it felt very much like a different song set was made for each show. Although incredible, the documentary just felt drawn out. I love Grande’s music but I was really excited to see all of the inner workings, costume decisions and stage designs however, those were never there. It just didn’t feel very special.
I think that although Grande is one of the best performers and vocalists I have ever heard, I would not recommend this documentary. If you just wanted to sit down and listen to Ariana live, then this is perfect but that is really all there is.