Bo Burnham: Inside (2021)

Directed by

Bo Burnham

Genre

comedy, drama

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 27m

Rated

R

Rating

8.0 of 10 from 612 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This is a musical comedy special made alone by Bo Burnham in one room during the pandemic. It shows him performing songs and sketches about his daily life, his mental health struggles, and his relationship with the internet.

solitaryintrospectivemelancholicstylizedrawself-awareconfessionaldarkly comicclaustrophobic

What happens

Bo Burnham: Inside is a 2021 musical special written, directed, filmed, edited, and performed by American comedian Bo Burnham. Created alone by Burnham in the guest house of his Los Angeles home during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was released on Netflix on May 30, 2021. Featuring a variety of songs and sketches about his day-to-day life indoors, it depicts Burnham's deteriorating mental health, explores themes of performativity and his relationship to the Internet and the audience it helped him reach, and addresses topics such as climate change and social movements. Other segments discuss online activities such as FaceTiming one's mother, posting on Instagram, sexting, and livestreaming video games. Inside follows Burnham's previous stand-up comedy special Make Happy (2016), which led him to quit performing as he began to experience panic attacks onstage during that special's tour. An album of songs from the special, Inside (The Songs), was released digitally on June 10, 2021. On the first anniversary of the special's release, Burnham uploaded The Inside Outtakes, an hour-long YouTube video of outtakes, unused songs, behind-the-scenes footage, and alternate takes from the special. A deluxe album including these outtakes, Inside (Deluxe), was released on June 3, 2022. The special was widely praised, particularly for its music, direction, cinematography, editing, and presentation of life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics found that the special incorporates a variety of art forms including music, stand-up comedy bits, and meta-commentary, describing it as some combination of comedy, drama, documentary, and theater. For Inside, Burnham received a Peabody Award, Emmy Awards for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special, Outstanding Music Direction, and Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special, and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media for "All Eyes On Me". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• The Inside Outtakes (2022)
• Make Happy (2016)
• Bo Burnham: what. (2013)
• Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021)
• Bo Burnham: Words, Words, Words (2010)
• Station to Station (2021)
• Sing 2 (2021)
• Healthy mind in a healthy body (2021)