Rock video memoir

Whether or not you like the music of U2, you should watch the video memoir of its lead singer Bono. The format of Bono: Stories of Surrender, streaming on Apple+, is peculiar. Like an autobiography, this is an auto-documentary, a documentary made by Bono about himself. It begins with spoken-word monologues by Bono, mixes in music, dips in and out of him telling his Irish family story on stage, personal confessions of his own journey, punctuated by lyrics of well-known songs to fill out his biography. It is a performance, but also a record, an oral history. It’s a film version of his mammoth book autobiography, Surrender, but I appreciated this cinematic novella for its innovative approach to a memoir. — KK