Watch Exclusive Footage From ODESZA’s ‘The Last Goodbye Cinematic Experience’
Written by djfrosty on July 6, 2023
On Friday, ODESZA‘s concert film/biopic The Last Goodbye Cinematic Experience will have its one-night run in more than 700 theaters worldwide.
The movie, directed by the Seattle-based duo’s longtime friend and creative director Sean Kusanagi, captures the grandeur of the pair’s recent tour behind their 2022 album, The Last Goodbye, while also unpacking the backstory behind ODESZA’s rise and the team behind the project.
The film emphasizes the incredible amount of work and attention to detail that went into the live show, for which the guys and their team took the album they’d just finished then completely revamped it for the tour, crossing the new music with older material and figuring out how to best present the ODESZA catalog in spectacle of lights, lasers, confetti and a drum line.
In an exclusive clip of the film below, the pair’s Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight hash out some of the most granular details of the show. The clip finds the guys parsing out details in the studio, with Mills acknowledging the high stakes to what they’re doing given the time that’s passed since their last tour.
“I’m a little nervous for sure,” Mills says, “it’s been three years.”
The Last Goodbye Cinematic Experience works for both old and new fans of ODESZA, with the movie composed of stunning, inventively shot concert footage from the Last Goodbye Tour that offers new views of the show even to those who’ve seen it. This footage is interspersed with the making of the show and archival material going back to the earliest days of ODESZA.
“Our long-time friend Sean Kusanagi has been with us from day one of ODESZA and it’s incredible to see what footage he pulled together from the past ten years of our careers,” Mills and Knight tell Billboard.
Highlights of the movie include the guys returning to the dilapidated basement of the college house where they began the ODESZA project, the older footage that demonstrates the friendships at the heart of the project, new material that reveals more of the emotion and psychology behind The Last Goodbye (try not to cry in the scene where Mills talks with him mom about the death of her parents), and the impact this music has had on fans.
“We wouldn’t be where we are today without our fans,” Mills and Harrison add. ‘That’s why we are extremely excited to share this film… to give those who have been with us a look behind the curtain for the first time and to let them know how grateful we are for their support over the years.”
Ultimately, The Last Goodbye Cinematic Experience functions in the same way as ODESZA’s previous output, providing a massive show with emotional punch. The 27-date tour after which the film is named hit arenas and amphitheaters across North America, grossing $25.6 million and selling 395,000 tickets, according to numbers provided by Billboard Boxscore.