Bono: Stories Of Surrender


Directed by Andrew Dominik

I’m still caught in its glow. The film lands like a quiet ache in the chest, stirring something deep and unspoken. I pored over the pages of Bono’s memoir, tracing his words with care, but Stories of Surrender breathes a different life into his tale. It unveils the threads of family, friendship, and faith that have woven his path through triumphs and shadows, inviting us to ponder what it means to unravel and begin anew.

The music—those U2 melodies that have long anchored my own heart—carries a tender weight here. They thread through moments of my past, stirring joys and losses I thought had faded. In their notes, I glimpse a younger self, full of longing and possibility. True artistry, I’ve always felt, isn’t just in crafting something beautiful but in forging moments that linger, raw and unguarded, like a melody that holds you to a truth you’d nearly forgotten. This film, at its core, mirrors those fragile truths back to us, human and unadorned.

Filmed at New York City’s Beacon Theatre during Bono’s 2023 solo performance, it traces Paul Hewson’s journey—not the mythic U2 frontman whose anthems have shaped generations, but a man wrestling with his own heart’s questions. In its 86 minutes, it stays close, intimate, resisting the pull of grandeur for something softer, more human. Yet, I found myself wishing for a touch more time to linger in its quieter depths, to rest in the silences that speak loudest.

Under Andrew Dominik’s steady hand, the film shines in its stripped-back moments—His voice softening, the camera pausing on a hesitant glance or a breath held too long. Backstage glimpses reveal not just the performer but the person, searching and flawed. The stage itself becomes a quiet dance of light and shadow: Bono, joined by a cellist, a harpist, a drummer, forms a gentle semicircle, their silhouettes glowing against a backdrop of LED light, radiant yet retreating. Their sound is a whisper, resonant, like a prayer exhaled into the dark.

Image courtesy of Apple TV Plus

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