Olivia Rodrigo: GUTS World Tour

I have very little experience with concert movies like this. But I enjoy the raw emotion that Olivia Rodrigo puts into her music and am impressed by her ability to sell out stadiums worldwide at 21 years old. So, I gave this GUTS World Tour concert doc a watch. I generally enjoyed the experience, with one nitpick that I'm simply not sure is unique to this sort of genre or not.

For a very basic overview, this concert is basically exactly what it says in the title--portraying the Los Angeles stop of Rodrigo's GUTS world tour, where she plays songs from that album and the previous SOUR record.

This is quite the high-octane, well-produced performance, with Rodrigo shifting effortlessly between her super high-energy songs and her piano/vocal ballads. Her ability to write these songs and take them on the road without a drop in quality is truly amazing--at any age, but especially 21!

That being said, I had one quibble with the entire production, that being the sound mix. I'm not sure if this is normal for these kinds of concert docs, but if you enjoy hearing fans screaming the songs instead of Olivia singing them you'll be just fine. Personally, I wish the sound mix would have shifted back and forth a bit more. Instead, it is very much a "put you in the crowd" experience as opposed to hearing Rodrigo's vocals.

Overall, though, I enjoyed this Netflix production even with my singular qualm about the audio choices. An Olivia Rodrigo concert is never dull, that is for sure.

I had high hopes for this concert movie, especially with Olivia Rodrigo being such a promising young artist on her second album. Unfortunately, I found it to be quite disappointing, largely due to the sound mixing. It feels like the production was more focused on showcasing the hysteria of her fans than highlighting her performance.

Throughout the film, the audience's screams overpower the music. Her voice is mixed so low that it's almost impossible to enjoy her singing, even after trying every equalization setting available. This issue completely undermines the experience-after all, this is a concert movie, where the music should be the star. Instead, I found myself watching a visual spectacle with subpar audio.

What makes this even more frustrating is that Olivia can sing, and from the faint glimpses of her voice buried under the crowd noise, she sounds great. It's baffling that the sound design obscures her talent. If this were an attempt to mask a lack of vocal ability, it might make sense-but that's not the case here.

Ultimately, I don't know if I'll even make it through to the end. The audio quality is just that bad. For a project meant to celebrate a musical artist, this felt like a major missed opportunity.

I have only heard of this woman, but I don't think that I have actually listened to any of her songs before this concert on Netflix, so I watched it because it's there and people are talking about it and I should get updated on some youth culture right?

I was expecting a songstress of the Ariana calibre but instead I got more of a Taylor Swift vibe. Definitely a future contender for Taylor, I'd say if this girl sticks with it she has all the talent to surpass or at least emulate Taylor Swift's success. It worked for me much more than Taylor's earlier songs did. But I am not a swiftie. Tbh I am not a fan of any of these hugely popular girlies. I'm a nineties girl and I doubt that will ever change.

But, I was surprised by the rock-indie delivery of the lines, again since I was expecting a songstress and by the very direct, relatable quality of the lyrics, which Taylor seems to have lost to complex metaphors. There's a bit of Miley Cyrus rebelliousness (contrived as that was at the time) in the tone of her voice and a bit of Gwen Stefani maybe in her expression. Again, do not hold my cultural references against me. I have never delved too deep into any of these female icons. I basically know their hits, of which there are plenty about and their public persona.

Anyway, one last thing I wanted to say, I sure enjoyed most of her songs, they are catchy (certainly nor revolutionary musically) and tongue in cheek and they deal mostly with boys - stupidly and hopelessly falling in love, getting heartbroken, cheated on, broken up with, getting revenge, being resentful. And a couple of songs about growing up and self-image. Not having had any romantic feelings or heartbreaks for a while now I took 'em for what they are, entertaining stuff for teens and 20 to 30 year old girls and those in the audience were sure singing their hearts out to these. I'm just glad I'm not going through a break-up right now cause some of these songs are pretty hard-core. I hope she writes from other people's experiences too, or else she has terrible taste in men. Or very bad luck. Or both...

As "Olivia Rodrigo: GUTA World Tour" (2024 release; 104 min.) opens, Olivia and her band and backup singers are backstage and about to come on. With the necessary pomp and circumstance, Olivia is the last to come on stage as the band crashes into "bad idea, right?". The concert hall (mostly teenage girls and young women) sings along with every lyric. Next comes "ballad of a homeschooled girl". At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this was filmed over two nights at the brand new Intuit Dome in Los Angeles just 2 over months ago (August 20-21, 2024). I cannot recall a faster concert movie release ever. By then Olivia and her musicians and backup singers and dancers were a well-oiled machine, having been on the road since February, 2024. (Every single show on the GUTS tour has been sold out.) All the hits are there, and of course also all the power ballads. The best moment is about halfway through for a guest appearance from Chappell Roan, who joined Olivia to perform a duet of her hit 'Hot to Go!' I can't rate the movie higher as I was really annoyed with the endless editing (on some tracks, it cuts to a different camera literally every second ). But other than that, if you were not able to attend the GUTS tour in person, this concert documentary gives a great opportunity to see what you missed.

"Olivia Rodrigo: GUTS World Toru" started streaming om Netflix just a few days ago. Whether you are a die-hard fan of Olivia Rodrigo or just now are starting to explore her music, I'd readily suggest you check out this concert documentary, and draw your own conclusion.

I'm not the biggest Rodrigo fan but I do really enjoy a lot of her music and appreciate that she writes her own stuff. This concert was very curated for her fans which, if you're a fan of hers is great! If you're a casual fan it might seem a bit immature and tantrum throwing girlhood type show but that's kinda her thing. Very theatrical and overly dramatic so that's what she does and she does it well. She has a lot of banger songs. Her dancers are dressed interestingly. Love that her band is all girls and super punk rock. I feel like she's going for Alanis circa 2000s grunge which makes sense since alanis is one of her idols. Loved the chapell guest surprise.