In Review: ‘The Sheep Detectives,’ ‘Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard Sand Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)’

The Sheep Detectives
Dir. Kyle Balda
109 min.

Most of the residents of the picturesque English village of Denbrook would struggle to find nice things to say about George Hardy (Hugh Jackman), a sometimes short-tempered, always stubborn loner who lives in a trailer and tends to a flock of sheep on a plot of land in the nearby countryside. But George’s sheep adore him. Not only does he keep them comfortable and well fed, he dotes on them, even reading them stories each night as they gather around him attentively, hanging on his every word. George favors detective novels of the whodunnit variety, and he assumes his nightly sessions fall on uncomprehending ears. He’s wrong, however. And when George himself becomes a murder victim, it’s up to his sheep to solve the crime.

If that sounds like a heavy set-up for a film primarily aimed at children, it isn’t—but it also is. Adapted from the 2005 novel Three Bags Full by the German crime writer Leonnie Swann, The Sheep Detectives has the winning cuteness and storybook lightness of inspirations like Paddington and Babe. But director Kyle Balda (an animation vet making his sort-of live-action debut) and screenwriter Craig Mazin (Chernobyl, The Last of Us) also, gingerly but unmistakably, use the story to depict the grieving process and the way children understand, and misunderstand, death and other difficult subjects.

For George’s sheep, dealing with death hasn’t been all that hard. All but the soulful Mopple (voiced by Chris O’Dowd) have the ability to erase unpleasant experiences from their memory at will. Even the brightest of the flock, Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), has availed herself of this ability. Lily has no memory of her parents’ deaths, for instance, but she’s sure that, like all sheep, they’ve turned into clouds. But George’s murder can’t be wished away so easily. So Lily, Mopple, and others like the moody outcast Sebastian (Bryan Cranston) decided to use the tools their shepherd has given them to establish means, motive, and opportunity and unmask his murderer.

It’s not like the sole local police officer Tim (Nicholas Braun, revealed here as equally gifted at playing British dimwits he is the American variety) is going to crack the case on his own. And it’s not like Debrook is short on suspects, who range from rival shepherd Caleb (Tosin Cole) to the hostile shopkeeper Beth (Hong Chau) to the American visitor Rebecca (Molly Gordon), a long-lost daughter with whom George had recently reconnected. But can sheep really provide useful assistance in a murder investigation?

The answer (spoiler, sorry) is “yes,” but not without first overcoming the obstacles and doubts standing in their way. The Sheep Detectives works as both an inventive mystery—a kind of “My First Cozy Whodunnit”—and a winning barnyard comedy filled with accomplished effects and memorable characters. (The voice cast also includes Bella Ramsey, Patrick Stewart, Regina Hall, Rhys Darby, and Brett Goldstein, the latter playing identical twins named “Reggie” and “Ronnie.”) But at heart, it’s also a coming-of-age movie in which Lily and the others have to grapple with finality, what it means to move on after a loss, and what keeps the spirits of the departed alive. It’s a lively but also lovely kids film about what happens when you can’t just be a kid anymore. —Keith Phipps

You can begin flocking to see The Sheep Detectives tonight.

Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)
Dir. James Cameron, Billie Eilish
114 min.

Ever since Jonathan Demme and David Byrne set the standard for concert films with Stop Making Sense in 1984, there have become certain fixed ideas about what not to do in the format: Don’t cut away to the fans. Don’t sprinkle in banal interview clips. Limit any backstage footage to a bit of mood-setting before the show. Basically, don’t do anything to distract from the continuity and flow of the performance, and try to give the movie audience a more intimate version of the experience a live audience would have enjoyed. Whatever dynamism a filmmaker brings to the table should come entirely from the choreography of the camera, the sharpness of the cutting, and, ideally, a close collaboration between director and artist. 

James Cameron throws most of those rules straight in the garbage for Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D), save for the close collaboration part, because Eilish earns a co-directing credit here. (How she earns the credit, apart from a scene where she’s asking Cameron about a certain camera placement, is a bit mysterious in context of the film. It feels more like Cameron deferring to her command over the show itself, which would be like Demme giving Byrne the credit for the stage conceit on the Stop Making Sense tour.) Audience cutaways are like the laugh-track of concert movies and there’s an incredible overabundance of shots in Hit Me Hard and Soft of teenagers weeping while shouting along to every Eilish song. Yet in the film’s defense, it’s hard to shoot an arena show around a star as big as Eilish without accounting for how much the crowd matters. This ain’t an evening with the symphony orchestra. 

One obvious point in the film’s favor: Eilish puts on a heck of a show, leaning so confidently into her versatility that she doesn’t bother with backup dancers and limits her special guest appearances to Finneas O’Connell, her brother and songwriting partner. Though the tour has its share of big-star adornments, including a “dog room” where rescue dogs are brought in for snuggles at each stop, Eilish does her own makeup and hair, and prowls the stage in a baggy jersey and sneakers. She tells Cameron that she was always most excited by hip-hop artists as live performers and she’s able to act as a bouncy hype-woman for her uptempo hits before sliding into moodier numbers that emphasize her vocal range. Though she does a lot of work inside an LED cube and an elevating platform, the stage design is relatively spare, with two carved-out orchestra spots for her band and an ocean of space for her to run. 

Though Hit Me Hard and Soft doesn’t “reinvent” the concert film, as the promotional language promises, Cameron’s mastery with 3D photography does make for an immersive experience, and there are some playful touches, too, like a handheld 3D camera that Eilish often holds in her right hand while the microphone rests in her left. Much of the show itself is interspersed with interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of mostly negligible value, though clips of Eilish navigating the catacombs beneath the stage are fascinating to watch, like seeing the gears of a well-oiled machine. Cameron’s direct interactions with Eilish are more awkward and limited, as if her PR reps have given him a tight 15-minute window before pushing him out the door. 

As riveting as the Eilish show gets, however, the true standout element of Hit Me Hard and Soft is the parasocial relationship between the artist and her fans, which Cameron does nothing to minimize, much less question. Fan after fan credits Eilish with affirming their identity and essentially being the one person standing between them and the emotional abyss, which would seem to be too much for a single musician to bear if Eilish herself didn’t also embrace the role. Watching the film gives you a better sense of why no price is too high for a concert ticket, because when a pop star is one of the most important people in your life, how else are you going to see them in the flesh? It might be healthier to spend modestly on a ticket to Hit Me Hard and Soft and save the rest for those who know your name. — Scott Tobias

Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) opens in theaters everywhere tonight.