On October 29, Netflix released the “GUTS World Tour Film” starring the one and only Olivia Rodrigo. With a blend of sonic sounds and vibrant pops of purple, Rodrigo successfully made viewers feel as though they were at the concert live when they were simply sitting at home.
In the age of concert films, fans were anticipating when Rodrigo would announce her movie. At her August shows, the cameras appeared, and fans were eager to find out on October 2 that the film would be coming soon. The concert movie was filmed during her final two shows in the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California on August 20 and 21. It began with the opening credits, showing that it starred Rodrigo herself as well as a time-lapsed video of fans entering the arena. It then panned to behind the scenes of Rodrigo, her dancers, and band, with Rodrigo preparing for “bad idea, right?” which is the second track of GUTS and the tour’s opening song.
The clip played right before she rises to the stage is her running and knocking on a door, an homage to the first 3 seconds of the song which has the sounds of a door opening and Rodrigo saying “hey”. The camera work is done from multiple angles, showing not just the popstar from a front view, but the band, dancers, and attendees. With multiple cuts to another view during each song, fans are guaranteed to feel immersed in the GUTS tour experience.
Once the first song is over, Rodrigo immediately jumps into “ballad of a homeschooled girl”, with the screens showing a yearbook with classmates’ faces scratched out. Following every few songs, she takes a chance to talk to the audience or her bandmates, making everyone feel like they are her own personal friends. Another aspect making the film so special was that viewers at home could hear the audience singing along to her songs. In previous concert films, their voices were drowned out by just the artists’ voices. However, when Rodrigo heard everyone singing to her ballads, she looked around the venue with an expression that showed the world she made it. This allows both the audience that was there and the viewers at home to feel what she felt, even if they do not 100% understand.
After performing four ballads, two with the microphone and the other with a piano, Rodrigo is lowered on the platform and changes into a sparkly black outfit. At one point in the show, Rodrigo sits on a moon and goes in a circle around the arena with stars surrounding her. During this part, the cameras showed the stars shining as they descended from the ceiling, adding to the beauty of the concert. The cameras then followed her around as she was strapped to the moon and singing her heart away.
Following “logical” and “enough for you” sung from the moon, Rodrigo surprised her fans with special guest (and previous opener) Chappell Roan. Together the duo sang Roan’s “Hot to go!” with the dance being performed by everyone in the audience. Their duet electrified the crowd, and right after Rodrigo performed two more ballads, both of which were acoustically sung. She then changed into a red outfit to thrill the crowd once more before leaving. However, viewers at home knew that she was not done as just around 30 seconds later, she returned for her encore.
During “get him back!”, she opened the letter to show viewers in the audience and at home a sweet message that read “thanks 4 watching”, showing her gratitude to everyone that made the film possible. Once she finished her final song, it cut to a janitor sweeping the floor filled with confetti and once again stating that the film starred the talented Olivia Rodrigo.
The film credits began to roll soon after, with clips from behind the scenes throughout the entirety of the tour were shown as “girl i’ve always been” played in the background. Whether fans saw the concert live or while sitting on their couch, they can all agree that Olivia Rodrigo deserves both the success and happiness as she finishes her first world tour.
