OLIVIA RODRIGO: driving home 2 u (a SOUR film)

Olivia Rodrigo drives from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles. The songs from the album Sour play in order along the way, some of them not in their studio arrangement but rearranged in a desert, a motel or an empty theatre. In between are conversations about how the album was written, and phone recordings. Stacey Lee directs. It was released on Disney+. The route is not arbitrary. Rodrigo began writing much of Sour in Utah, and the film follows that road in reverse. It is not a documentary and not a concert film. It sits between the two: the performance locations are chosen for the songs and each song is shot on a separate visual idea. The best passages are where the arrangements change. Tracks that run on guitar and drums on the record are played here on piano alone or with strings, and the lyrics sound different. The talking sections are the weak part. The questions are soft, the answers are prepared, and nothing new is said about the actual story behind the album. It runs about seventy five minutes at a calm pace. Who it is for: listeners of Olivia Rodrigo and viewers who like album based concert films. Who it is not for: there is no entry point for anyone who does not know the music, and the film never steps outside its fanbase.