The 5 easiest reasons I could come up with for how in god’s name One Direction: This Is Us turned me from a skeptic into a belieber believer would be: Harry, Niall, Louis, Liam, and Zayn. That would be both far too easy and obvious, and also too simplistic—I do want to be clear that I absolutely could do that because these guys are genuinely adorbs. I didn’t want to like them as much as I did, and I didn’t want to admit that I liked them as much as I did, and yet here I am.
Tempting as it might be to attribute this likeability entirely to the band (a term which everyone calls them, despite boy bands being as much “band” as “Cheez Whiz” is cheese), major credit is due to the efforts of directioner director and honorary sixth One Direction member, Morgan Spurlock. I’ve written a couple of times in the past couple of weeks about the subversive streak Spurlock’s films have shown, from Super Size Me to The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, and whether this movie would try to subtly work in some biting commentary that would go undetected by evil supervillain and executive producer Simon Cowell.
These were tempered expectations, and rightfully so. Given that Spurlock had looked to land the directorial spot on the Bieber and Katy Perry movies, it would seem this is a realm of human culture that he’s genuinely interested in, and thus won’t simply treat it with snarky antagonism, satisfying as that approach may be to cynics like myself.
Instead, he was able to make a pop music documentary that is certain to please the group’s countless fans around the world, but also provide enough interesting material and entertainment value to potentially win over the more hard-hearted watchers.
Here are 5 reasons you just may find One Direction: This Is Us surprisingly enjoyable.
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