Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Our World’ on Amazon Prime, Chronicling Justin Bieber’s COVID Concert On An LA Roof 

15 years after it all began for him, Justin Bieber is a 150 million-record-selling phenomenon with two Grammys, a well-burnished Forbes Magazine celebrity power ranking, and a gilded throne where he sits before his vast army of Beliebers. OK, that’s all cool, but COVID shut him down, too. And that’s when the concept behind the concert in Our World (Amazon Prime) came about. Follow JB as he prepares for and plays a New Year’s Eve 2020 show staged on the roof of LA’s Beverly Hilton, livestreaming the event for a world in Lockdown… 

JUSTIN BIEBER: OUR WORLD: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Once the wheels have been greased by his management and creative teams, it’s up to Justin Bieber to prepare himself for his first full concert in three years, and prepare to do it during a raging worldwide pandemic. Our World makes a lot of hay about how COVID protocols adjusted how the show was prepped for and played, as well as how the film was shot; Bieber himself contributes with a “self-capture” camera for moments at home with his wife Hailey Baldwin, as well as in the staging area for the concert, 30 days out from showtime. The site: The roof of the ballroom at Los Angeles’ Beverly Hilton, home of the Golden Globes and now, a live set that will feature a triangular stage facing the V-shaped room wings. 240 VIPs and guests  — the extreme limit in a city on Lockdown — will take in the show live, while perhaps 240 million will stream it worldwide. That’s the plan, anyway.

Preparations continue as the days tick down, with daily rapid testing for crew and talent. And Our World intercuts that footage with the show itself, where Bieber, dressed in a casually baggy vintage Nike hoodie, runs through hits like “Sorry,” “Second That Emotion,” “Boyfriend,” and “Baby,” all of them with the guest shots from the likes of Travis Scott and Ludacris on tape, since COVID and weight restrictions keep the stage personnel sparse. (Bieber is joined throughout by his troupes of male and female dancers and a longtime backup band that includes a bassist, drummer, and DJ.) For “Boyfriend,” Our World cuts energetically between choreo rehearsal for the song and the real thing occurring; it’s one dynamic moment in an otherwise pretty straightforward see-saw between prep and performance.

As events roll on to zero hour, Bieber’s lead choreographer tests positive for COVID, throwing a wrench into prep. The livestream crashes, because every Belieber the world over logs in at once. But the show must go on, and it does, with “Where Are U Now” and “Anyone” providing some of the most electric pyro and laser moments of the evening. And as drones morph a cross into a big pink “JB” in the sky, cameras capture the star and his dancers descending from the roof stage. “”Being an entertainer can be very self-serving if you let it, because everyone’s screaming for you,” Bieber muses in a closing voiceover. “You gotta constantly go back to the thought of ‘Why.’ ‘Why am I singing for all of these people? Is it because I want to feel good about myself? Or is it to make others feel good about themselves?'”

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? The Justin Bieber documentary Never Say Never found him preparing for a really big show, too, only it was 2011 and Biebs was still a fresh-faced teen pop sensation with a penchant for drum solos. 2013’s Believe, meanwhile, was straight up angel worship, a hagiographic spectacle that paid lip service to bringing a supposed deity down to earth.

Performance Worth Watching: Honestly, a companion documentary delving into the engineering and logistical specifics of preparing the roof of the nearly 70-year-old Beverly Hilton to host a Justin Bieber concert, replete with its dancers, musicians, and weighty instrument backline, its pyrotechnic rigs and mini-jib cranes, would be really interesting. As it is, the preparation and execution of the roof site does get some compelling screen time in Our World.

Memorable Dialogue: If there’s a narrative thread running through the behind-the-scenes stuff here, it’s Bieber’s evolution as the trusted chief of his tribe, and JB himself sheds some light on his management style. “One of the coolest definitions of leadership that I’ve heard is harnessing human energy to make effective change.” He’s Dale Carnegie in a plush baby blue Drew House hoodie.

Sex and Skin: There are a few shots of a shirtless Biebs, if anybody with a quick draw on the pause button is still trying to decode his litany of tattoos.

Our Take: Justin Bieber is newly, happily married, sleeping with four humidifiers in his bedroom, cracking Step Brothers resets to his “self-capture” camera, and taking long morning walks through his Hollywood Hills neighborhood. That’s about the extent of what Our World reveals about Bieber’s private world, beyond a brief visit with his younger siblings. What this doc mostly wants to focus on is how much the singer has matured as a boss and inspirational force since he burst onto the music scene in 2007. (The occasional video throwbacks to a precocious teen Biebs somehow look ancient, but they’re largely from 2013.) Band members and production staff speak highly of him, his aura, his stamina — it’s like B-roll for a “Best Places to Work” corporate video. Bieber does profess his gratitude that he’s able to keep doing what he loves, as well as employing professionals, during COVID and Lockdown. “I think it’s just so lucky that we get to work during this time, ‘cause a lot of people don’t…”

That sentiment is admirable. And the live set itself does have its moments, particularly when the dancers move into a frenzy for “What Do You Mean,” the pyro and lasers pulse and explode in time with Bieber’s vocal drops, and cut-ins capture the assembled VIP’s losing their shit on the hotel room balconies. But it’s not clear that Our World offers any greater insight into where Bieber is as a person and a performer than being someone who’s become more grounded since his marriage and more of a professional after a decade-plus in show business. For the Beliebers, though, maybe that’s enough. For everyone else, Our World might be what it sometimes feels like: a promotional item for Bieber’s upcoming, rescheduled-after-COVID world tour, with beats and choreo added.

Our Call: STREAM IT. All ten zillion Beliebers probably streamed this concert back on New Year’s Eve. But Our World does put some seasoning on the now 27-year-old JB and his life in the spotlight.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges