MOVIE GUIDE: BONO STORIES OF SURRENDER (2025)
First of all, let me set the record straight: I’m a huge U2 fan. I have been since 1986 (some might say that’s a little late considering the band started around 1980 but what can I say? It’s the story of my life, arriving late to almost everything). So, with that said you might find these words a bit biased, but please bear with me. U2’s history both musically and visually has always revolved around Black and White. Many of their most beautiful videos / films were shot in B&W (Anton Corbijn, Mark Romanek,Win Wenders, Phil Joanou among many others), some of them were grainy, raw, handheld and some were much more carefully staged and composed.
This time Bono goes solo with a mixture of Book Tour / Theatrical antics / Mini concert in order to expose his life and his tribulations. “Stories Of Surrender” is a deeply intimate confessional, a love letter to his wife, to his bandmates, to his late mother, Iris. It’s an atonement of his love and hate relationship with his Da’. All well intertwined with stripped down versions of U2’s most significant hits. But be warned this is not a “Greatest Hits” concert, this is Bono’s tale told in a Glorious Black and White, filled with silhouettes, chiaroscuro and shadows. Elegant just as you’d expected from Andrew Dominik, the director (Killing Me Softly, The Assassination Of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford, Blonde) and his DP Erik Messerschmidt (Mank, Mindhunter, Ferrari). The visual style stands miles apart from the rawness of “Rattle & Hum or the exquisite visuals of the video “Please”. Here’s Bono, alone on a stage, naked from the grandiose of U2’s big concerts, facing his life, his near death experience. Telling his side of his story.
“…I was born with an eccentric heart…”
available on Apple +
