Happiness Continues

Anthony Mandler's 2020 concert film assembles footage from the Jonas Brothers' Happiness Begins tour with backstage moments from the road. The structure is simple: short passages about life on tour sit between the stage performances, with partners and family visible as part of the touring arrangement. The band's 2013 breakup and 2019 reunion supply the emotional frame. The inevitable limit of this kind of production applies here too: because the film was made under the band's own producing hand, it admits no cracks. The reasons for the split are touched only in softened language. The sound on the concert recordings is good and the crowd photography conveys the scale of the tour, which is the film's real function. Who it's for: Jonas Brothers listeners and viewers who enjoy the tour-documentary format. Who it's not for: anyone expecting a candid account of the band's history, or who will notice that from outside the fanbase there is not much on offer.