Olivia Rodrigo – driving home 2 u review: Only fans of the singer will like this tale of failed love, teenage angst

2/5

Story: In case you didn’t already know, Olivia Rodrigo -driving home 2 u is about the 18-year-old singer using music to overcome heartbreak, the emotions she felt while writing some of the chart-topping numbers from her debut album Sour and more.

Review: When you are not much of a music aficionado and only listen to the latest pop tracks when on long drives, hearing song after song after song about failed love, dissing former partners, pining for an ex, music being therapeutic, etc., can, truth be told, get tiresome, especially if you are also well past the age to relate to any of it. So, you get to a point where all that’s registering is the music/tune and not so much the lyrics.

I had heard Olivia Rodrigo’s hit debut number Driving License back when it came out and didn’t think much of it, until this week, when I was asked to watch her documentary, ‘driving home 2 U’. It helps to have a teenager at home who is not only clued in to Olivia’s music, but also all the drama that played out in the course of the release of her album, ‘Sour’, including the plagiarism allegations and lyrics credits, all of which led to her making massive royalty pay-outs to Taylor Swift and Paramore. There was also something about the 18-year-old singer ripping off Courtney Love’s look from her Live Through album cover, including tiara, makeup streaming down her face and flowers. Honestly, that stuff sounded a lot more interesting than the 77 minutes of this documentary.

Hardcore fans of the Disney star, of course, will love renditions of Driving License, Déjà vu, Favorite Crime, Good 4 u, Enough for you, Traitor, etc., from her album Sour, which has bagged seven Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year, a category in which she’s going up against Taylor Swift. There’s also behind-the-scenes stuff from the recording studio that is meant to give viewers an intimate look into the process of her music making.

Verdict: You have to be a certain age or be a hard-core Olivia Rodrigo fan to be able to endure this. I don’t fall into either category and made liberal use of the skip ahead option to get to the end of this documentary. There are no ground-breaking revelations about her song-writing process and no word on any of the controversies – it’s more like a concert peppered with a lot of blah, blah blah in between. Stream at your own risk!