Miley Cyrus has always had something to prove. Before the colloquialism of ‘nepo baby’, she was the face of her own Disney Channel family sitcom, Hannah Montanah, co-starring her musician father, Billy Ray Cyrus. When she escaped Mickey Mouse’s clutch, she pivoted hard into the party girl aesthtic with the album Bangerz, which in 2013, felt silly and cringe, but fits unsettlingly well with the 2025 pop girly style. Even as recently as the 2024 Grammys, she performed her hit song “Flowers” and ad-libbed “I just won my first Grammy!” causing audiences at home to wonder, “Wow! Is that true?” (It was!). Now, she has released her ninth studio album, Something Beautiful, with an accompanying film that was released in theaters for one night only. While the film, a 55 minute collection of music videos for each of the album’s 13 tracks, doesn’t have an obvious plot, it clearly marks her intention to be taken seriously as an artist.
The film opens with a spoken word prelude about emptiness, loneliness, and the passage of time, intercut with flashes of flowers and a slow reveal of Cyrus in a sparkly showgirl costume. This stands as a sort of the statement of the film visually, the beautiful flower about to bloom is also the Vegas showgirl about to perform. Something Beautiful as an album might be Cyrus’ best work yet. The tracklist shows the wide breadth of Miley’s musicial wheelhouse, from 70’s disco a la ABBA (“End of the World”) to sleazy, soulful rock & roll (“Easy Lover”). The title track is a sultry waltz that attacks you with a distorted guitar and horn section and the visuals have Miley performing on a soundstage in a feather-y ghillie suit looking outfit. The lights strung up on the truss start blowing out along with explosions in the walls. It’s a rhythmic chaos that immediately sets a tone for the rest of the film.
As Cyrus makes her way through the songs, the performances move from soundstage to dressing room to backlot back to soundstage, all while performing her heart out. It feels like getting a glimpse behind the process of performing as an artist of her level. By the time you get to “Golden Burning Sun”, a video that takes place with her on a motorcycle in front of an artificial sunset background (Think Kanye West’s “Bound 2” music video, but more earnest), you start coming to terms that this isn’t really a cohesive visual project. Sure, there are themes of performance and stardom that all of these vignettes cover, but it lacks an overarching narrative that would satisfy an audience watching this as a complete film instead of 13 music videos. Beyoncé’s Lemonade is the Rosetta Stone for visual albums and Miley is clearly trying to present this film in the same calibur, but it works best as an advertisement for this great record, rather than an equally ambitious companion piece.
It’s hard not to think about another film released this year based on an album, The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow, which was unfairly panned by audiences and critics. While Something Beautiful is far from destined to have a similar reaction due to its extremely limited release, the films make for a compelling double feature. Both follow giant pop stars deep in their careers as they explore what it means and the exent they’re willing to go to perform. Hurry Up Tommorow lingers a little too hard in metaphor and dream logic, but Something Beautiful should have embraced that space. In the segment for the song, “Walk of Fame”, Miley walks up and down the Hollywood Walk of Fame and poses in front of a shuttered store front. The imagery is extremely on the nose and isn’t nearly evocative enough to distract the audience who knows what the Hollywood Walk of Fame smells like to not be worried for her health. You can say this about Cyrus: she does her own stunts.
2 and half stars out of 5.
Something Beautiful is a fantastic album, but as a film, it doesn’t feel like it warrants a theatrical release. The assemblage of music videos will undoubtably be available to watch on Youtube in the coming weeks so don’t feel bad if you missed out on the one night only showing.
