Culture

Rating: 3/5

One Direction: This Is Us explores obsession. Society seems to crave celebrities that seem attainable, or somehow normal, just like us. “The American Dream” has been twisted into an obsession with being famous.

We have seen other films produced about the lives of mainstream singers such as Justin Beiber and Katy Perry. People swear that watching these movies will make you fall in love with their celebrity subjects. The One Direction movie, like the others, follows the same basic narrative.

We gain an all-access pass to One Direction’s BIGGEST tour yet! We gain insight into Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry and Louis’ humble origins! We watch as they go on to play to stadiums packed with sixty thousand pubescent girls, all while learning about their personalities and quirks! I take it that Niall is the nice one while Zayn is ever-mysterious. They hate being famous, but are eternally gracious to their fans. The myth is that they are down-to-earth, humble boys that accidentally stumbled upon fame in X-Factor.

The truth is that they are moulds of a perfectly manicured pop-culture, milked for purely capitalist gains. I found it mildly interesting to see what an exhausting life these boys live. It seems that they are totally exploited by the massive record labels, and constantly expected to be creative, producing a never-ending stream of drivel to satisfy the hungry masses.

In one scene, I genuinely felt sorry for the guys. They got 10 minutes’ sleep before being forced awake to record songs for their new album. How is that even possible? It’s hardly conducive to quality workmanship, and does nothing to encourage creativity and innovation. No wonder they simply regurgitate someone else’s pre-written lyrics. I also found it horrible that they only got two days off in two-year tour. Sure, they get to buy their parents houses, but they probably hardly know them anymore.

I enjoyed watching this film, if only because it seemed to honestly reflect on the way that pop stars have increasingly becoming idolised objects that are run into the ground for the sake of a few bucks. No wonder they end up drug-ridden train wrecks.