Review of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011) by Iris S — 22 May 2011

Never Say Never takes us directly into the newfound pop institution that is Justin Bieber and how he came to be. No you don't see his parents literally conceive him, although they could have just added footage of the opening of Look Who's Talking and just played 'Baby' over it. But anyways, Justin Bieber is a superstar obviously, with energy, good hair and a winning smile, not to mention real presence (check out his short cameo on an episode of The Daily Show). And he's only now 17 years old. You might think it's a bit soon for a movie, and you'd be right, but honestly, Never Say Never isn't the worst movie I've seen this year.

Never Say Never is essentially a concert film. We see the Biebs do crowd-pleasing acts like pull a fan onstage and serenade her with 'One Less Lonely Girl'. Does it all ever become unbearable. Sure does, if you aren't a little girl. There's way too much baby, baby, baby crooning, and after a while it all gets to be a bit nauseating, too much sugar.

What's most interesting about Never Say Never is how it pours so much praise and fascination on the kid, almost like Michael Jackson's This Is It, but Bieber isn't dead. None of that comes in the concert scenes, particularly the anti-climactic sort of plot about a throat infection possibly derailing his first show at Madison Square Garden. It does come in the story of Bieber himself, born to a teen mom in Canada, his father leaving to marry another woman and have two more children, the footage of him as a child playing drums on a chair. It was YouTube videos uploaded by his mother that got the attention of Scooter Braun and eventually Usher. Still, very little is seen from those years. All of the aforementioned do make appearances, mostly to espouse how all they want is what's best for the kid as he embarks on an 84-date tour.

One interesting moment happens when Bieber remembers Madonna talking about Michael Jackson and how he had no childhood. It's not unnatural to have similar concerns for the Biebs, especially since most of the time he seems to simply be fulfilling promotional and marketing obligations, like rapping alongside Jaden Smith on the song 'Never Say Never' from The Karate Kid. Of course I could be over-thinking this. Still, you can see why the Biebs is as huge as he is. Or not. As Willie Dixon once sang, 'the men don't know but the little girls understand.'.