Justin Bieber’s Documentary Taught Me He Probably Hates Himself

Sunday Night at 8pm I turned on MTV and, like millions of eight-to-16 year-old girls throughout the world, watched the television premiere of Justin Bieber’s documentary Never Say Never. It felt like genuine “Event Television,” something increasingly rare in an age where the warp speed that which the information cycle swirls nebulously around us ensures we’re never absorbing the same information at the same time. More than that, the documentary—filmed nearly three years ago—stands as a time capsule of sorts, isolating a very specific moment in the life of the biggest young pop star in America that we can compare to the young adult he has become.

As a hybrid documentary/concert film taken in a cultural vacuum, Never Say Never is good—given its budget and the brand of Bieber at stake, how could it suck?—but it illustrates a sad truth about a 16 year-old Justin Bieber, and that’s that at a terrifyingly young age, Bieber entered into a Faustian bargain that he didn’t fully understand. In the film he’s being constantly monitored—by a vocal coach, by his manager, by his mother, by his legions of young fans, by the very cameras themselves. At one point in the film, his vocal coach tells the camera, “Sometimes Justin talks about wanting to be normal, and we say, 'You gave up being normal. This is your new normal.’” Have you ever thought about what a fucked-up thing that is to say to a 16 year-old?

Justin Bieber entered into the teen pop machine at the age of 14, before he could possibly comprehend the lasting effects of becoming rich and famous. Justin Bieber-level fame is like stepping through a door into a room that you can never leave. Never Say Never shows a prodigiously talented boy who is only starting to understand the constraints in which he has placed himself. Though he’s the star, he’s constantly working in the service of others, be it his fans or those—who though ostensibly under his employ in service of his machine—control and regulate his every move to ensure his status as a commodity and brand is preserved. On the road he’s constantly in the company of adults. The only time he interacts with other teenagers in a non-professional capacity is when he returns to his hometown to hang out with his pre-stardom friends to hang out with them. Even then, this interaction is performative, perhaps completely staged. Either way, Bieber’s kind of a dick to his friends, mercilessly mocking them for not being as good at basketball as he is and bragging that he blamed breaking off the leg of a taxidermied animal on their friend Nolan.

These days, it seems that Bieber has blossomed into a fully-developed prick, abandoning monkeys in Germany, pissing in buckets, throwing tantrums when his friends can’t get in the club, and generally acting with impunity. But can he really be blamed for being an asshole when Never Say Never gives us a glimpse into what his adolescence was like? Justin Bieber has more to do with the titular character from Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game than any pop star before him, only realizing the consequences of his actions once he’s eradicated an entire race of human beings. Now that Bieber’s realized he’s a cog in the massive machine that is the brand of “Justin Bieber,” I would not doubt that he totally hates himself. Perhaps he wants out, but there’s too much money to be made, too many other people’s lives on the line, too many people who would be let down if he just stopped. So he keeps on. When I saw him perform live last week, there was a distinct sense of disconnect to his performance, as if he were merely a shell, simply riding out his stage time so he could get back on his bus and brood.

The Justin Bieber of Never Say Never was precocious; the Justin Bieber of 2013 seems prematurely jaded. Yes, millions of little girls love him, but does he want or need that love any more? Bieber needs to follow in the footsteps of his contemporary/rumored hookup Miley Cyrus and record something in the vein of “We Can’t Stop.” All it took for Miley to gleefully shatter her former image was one three-and-a-half-minute video, thrust upon the world with impunity. Justin can make that hard ideological cut too, but only way he can truly grow up, however, is if the Justin Bieber of Never Say Never decides that smart business sense, superstardom, and the best interests of anyone other than himself can go to hell.

Drew Millard aspires to be Justin Bieber's official biographer. He's on Twitter - @drewmillard