Homecoming: A Film by Beyonce

HOMECOMING: A FILM BY BEYONCE records the memorable performance she gave in 2018 with her cast of hundreds, as the first black woman to headline the 20-year-old Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival held annually in the California desert. This edited version of scores of songs is intercut with footage from months of rehearsals with dancers, musicians, and tech crew. Also included are interview snippets in which Beyonce describes a tough pregnancy and delivery, and her process of "coming home" to the stage after a year off. As co-director, writer, executive producer, and musical director of the film, she sets an uplifting tone with quotes presumably from commencement speeches given at historically-black college and universities, and a recording of the late poet Maya Angelou advising the current generation to "tell the truth, first to yourself." That message carries through along with the reminder to move beyond the terrible institutional wrongs perpetrated on black people and women in America, brought home nicely when Beyonce's eldest daughter Blue Ivy sings the "black national anthem," 'Lift Every Voice and Sing." Guest performers include her husband rapper Jay-Z, her sister Solange, and her former Destiny's Child partners, Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland. Songs include "Flawless," "Love on Top," "Single Ladies" and "Feeling Myself," which has suggestive lyrics and dancing to match. Several of Beyonce's songs, especially those from her album Lemonade, make reference to difficulties in her marriage resulting from her husband's infidelity ("Hold Up," for example). That she publicly made "lemonade" out of the "lemons" in her life is part of her vast appeal to an adoring audience whose lives may be less than perfect.