September 16, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Anthony Mandler
Culture Representation: Taking place at La Seine Musicale in Paris during the autumn of 2023, the concert documentary film “Usher: Rendezvous in Paris” has a racially diverse group of people (black, white, Asian, and Latin) who are on stage and in the audience.
Culture Clash: American superstar Usher performs in Paris during Paris Fashion Week.
Culture Audience: “Usher: Rendezvous in Paris” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Usher and people who like high-energy concert documentaries and don’t mind seeing dance moves and song performances that have adult sexual themes.
“Usher: Rendezvous in Paris” delivers exactly what you think it should for a high-energy, sexually suggestive concert documentary of Usher performing in Paris. It’s a competently made film but iit has no surprises and isn’t extraordinary. This is a movie made for Usher’s fans who want familiarity, include the expected set list of his greatest hits.
Directed by Anthony Mandler, the documentary was filmed during Paris Fashion Week (September 25 to October 3) in 2023, when Usher (the Atlanta native whose full name is Usher Raymond) did a concert stint at La Seine Musicale. The concert, which is divided into six chapters, has filmed interludes of Usher walking around in a fedora on the streets of Paris (sometimes with smoke effects on the streets), with voiceover narration of Usher saying poetry-like ramblings about a mystery woman who’s on his mind. “I couldn’t resist the temptation to seduce her,” Usher says in the dialogue.
These interludes come across as both a little bit pretentious and a little corny, with lines such as “I cam to find something. A touch. A taste. A flame.” And “I was a victim of my own imagination … Was she ambitious or just cold? … Was it really love or just my pride? The fairytale is crumbling. I bet and I lost. I was waiting for something to happen, something violent, something dreadful.” Fortunately, these interludes are short and don’t take away from the main attraction: seeing Usher perform in concert. About 85% of the audience consists of women, most of whom seem to be in adoring awe of Usher
Usher knows he’s a sex symbol and plays it up to the hilt, including simulating sexual foreplay and doing a lot of grinding with several of his female backup dancers. One dancer, clad in a G-string and dominatrix gear, outright simulates S&M sex with Usher. During “Bad Girl,” the female dancers perform on stripper poles and twerk. It would probably be more offensive to some if most of the audience consisted of children, but the concert audience in this movie are mostly women in their 20s, 30s and 40s.
Some viewers might notice that Usher’s female dancers, not his male dancers, are the once who have to be scantily clad as they prance and strut around on stage. But it’s all very calculated: If Usher had his male dancers be too much eye candy the audience, that would take attention away from him, the star of the show. One of the concert highlights is when Usher and his backup dancers glide and twirl around on roller skates, which is a lot harder than it looks.
Usher’s vocals are in fine form, as he belts out his hits like a seasoned pro. He’s also not afraid to work up a sweat. The set list includes several hits spanning his entire career so far, including “Caught Up,” “My Boo,” U Remind Me,” “U Make Me Wanna…,” “U Got It Bad,” “Nice and Slow,” “Burn,” “Confessions Part II” and “OMG.” Predictably, Usher saves his biggest hit (“Yeah!”) for near the end of the set. Unpredictably, he ends the set by performing David Guetta’s “Without You.” Simply put: “Usher: Rendezvous in Paris” is the concert equivalent of sexy comfort food for people who know exactly what they’re getting.
Here is the complete song list for “Usher: Rendezvous in Paris”:
- DJ Got Us Falling in Love
- Caught Up
- U Don’t Have to Call
- Love in This Club
- Party
- Birthday Song
- How Low
- Thick
- Lil Freak
- Lovers and Friends
- Forever Yours
- Superstar
- Big
- Ruin
- She Came to Give It to You
- Get in My Car
- A-Town Girl
- No Limit
- I Don’t Mind
- Bad Girl
- My Boo
- There Goes My Baby
- Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home)
- U Remind Me
- U Make Me Wanna…
- Come Thru
- Creep
- Bad Habits
- U Got It Bad
- Nice & Slow
- Confessions Part II
- OMG
- Yeah!
- Without You
- Good Kisser
- Downtime
- Climax
- Burn
- Scream
- Can You Feel It
- Good Good
AMC Theatres Distribution and Trafalgar Releasing released “Usher: Rendezvous in Paris” in U.S. cinemas for a limited engagement from September 12 to September 15, 2024.