As a child in Iceland, she dreamed of playing in great venues with the best bands in the world, living in LA, and driving an old Cadillac. Now, She is doing all of those things and more. Laufey is a popular Icelandic-Chinese jazz artist who rose to fame in the last year for her songs, mostly about love and heartbreak. In August, she performed at The Hollywood Bowl, a beautiful venue that seats 17,500. She sold the venue out, and recorded the performance to make the aptly named concert film Laufey’s a Night at The Symphony: Hollywood Bowl. I saw the film with Sophomore Thomas McHugh on December 6th at the Jordan Creek theater.
The film opens with an appropriate line. In white, bold font on a black backdrop, the screen reads “The Movie is about to start.” A short prologue occurs, and the concert starts. The bulk of the film is Laufey singing and the LA Philharmonic Orchestra accompanying, with a format familiar to the Eras Tour film that Taylor Swift put out earlier this year. Overall, Laufey played 27 songs, with an intermission. During the intermission, a short pre-recorded segment played where Laufey described how she got to this moment and how grateful she is for all of the opportunities given to her.
If you like her music, you would like this movie. It’s a playlist in video form. The music does sound better with the LA philharmonic orchestra.
Thomas noted “ the new versions of the songs and the new renditions were really nice and I liked the song list overall.”
Some of her lyrics that struck a chord (pun intended) with me are “You were my everything, I was your second best,” and “It hurts to be something, it’s worse to be nothing with you.” Tickets were a little expensive at around $18 a piece. What makes this movie most fascinating is certainly its exclusivity. The movie only ran from the 6th to the 10th of December, and it’s unclear whether it will end up on streaming or DVD. Furthermore, it was only showing at a few theaters, which is why we had to go all the way to Jordan Creek.
If you missed out on the film, fret not. Her songs are still great wherever you can stream them. There’s an unofficial playlist on Spotify of all the songs she played, in the right order, to replicate the experience. She also recently released a Christmas album, available wherever music is streaming. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran of her music or you’ve never heard any, I would recommend paying her a visit online.
Overall, I give this movie a 6/10. The tickets were a little pricey, and availability was scarce. If the movie streams or becomes a DVD, it could become a 7/10, because it’s overall a great experience. Thomas gives it an 8.5/10. Laufey is only 25, and she’s already accomplished this much. I anticipate we’ll be seeing much more of her over the next few decades.
