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Dir: Morgan Spurlock; Starring: Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne
Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry and Louis' meteoric rise to fame, from their humble hometown beginnings and competing on the X-Factor, to conquering the world and performing at London's famed O2 Arena.
When I first heard that Morgan Spurlock, the documentarian, was making a film about One Direction, I assumed that he would be listening to nothing but the boyband’s music for 30 days to see if it would induce heart failure. In his 2004 film Super Size Me, Spurlock claimed that eating only food from McDonalds left him 1st 10lbs heavier, and suffering from vomiting, liver disease, mood swings and sexual dysfunction. This latest stunt would surely be enough to finish him off.
Well, not quite. One Direction: This Is Us is a straightforward account of the group’s three-year rise to fame, culminating in two sold-out nights at the 50,000-capacity Foro Sol arena in Mexico City. Even readers who are unfamiliar with the work of Harry Styles, Zayn Malik et al may still be aware that the five-piece was constructed during the seventh series of The X Factor: they finished in third place, but were signed to Simon Cowell’s record label anyway. Cowell pops up towards the start of the film to marvel, with an admirably straight face, at their entirely organic rise to stardom.
Spurlock himself is nowhere to be seen, perhaps because the man in charge of this film is plainly Cowell himself, whose influence hangs over the picture like the smell of a leaky bin bag. One Direction: This Is Us is constructed like an episode of The X Factor, with 3D performances from their Take Me Home concert tour (96 arena dates down and still rumbling onwards) broken up by ersatz candid footage.
