Netflix documentary film “Noah Kahan: Out of Body”, which was released on this Monday, is the earnest presentation of one famous musician trying to find whatever may be next for him after his sudden big breakthrough. As he sincerely and frankly reveals a number of his personal issues, we also come to appreciate more of his considerable artistic talent, and it is touching to see how he becomes more prepared to take the next step for his life and career.

Around the late 2010s, Noah Kahan was just a young emerging musician from Vermont. Although he signed with Republic Records in 2017 and then made his first debut album in 2019, his career seemed to be going nowhere even after that, and then there came the pandemic early in 2020. As staying along with his several family members in their family home in Vermont, he focused more on his music, and then there came an unexpected moment. He uploaded his performance of one of his songs on TikTok as usual on the one day of 2022, and then, what do you know, this became much more popular than he ever imagined.

And that is just the beginning of a huge breakthrough for Kahan’s career. After the eventual release of his new album “Stick Season”, he and his music became all the more popular than before during next several years, and he started to perform at various concerts and notable TV shows including Saturday Night Live. Around the time when he was about to have his own concert in Boston, a lot of his fans were eagerly waiting for him, and he certainly felt quite pressured as shown from the opening scene of the documentary. 

Meanwhile, the documentary pays attention to Kahan’s personal life and some longtime issues of his. He grew up with several other siblings in their hometown in Vermont, and he had often observed how dysfunctional his family could be, which was incidentally the main source of inspiration for many of those songs in “Sick Album”. As his mother, who recently divorced her husband, points out at one point, those songs are strewn with numerous personal elements to be recognized by Kahan’s family, but she is not embarrassed at all because she is simply proud of her son making a big success in his field.

 In case of Kahan’s father, he is not so enthusiastic about his son’s music career in contrast to his ex-wife. After a serious car accident, his mind became less stable and more distant than before, and this aspect of his is quite evident when Kahan visits his father’s residence, which is full of many different stuffs collected by his father for no apparent reason. While we are amused a bit by his silly handmade bag, it is apparent that Kahan’s father has some mental issues, and Kahan later tells us about how much his father was changed after that car accident – and how long it took for him to accept that irreversible change in his father.

Kahan also does not hide much of what he has struggled with for many years. Although he looks better and healthier than me at least, Kahan has actually coped a lot with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), and he honestly talks about how he often feels not so good about his appearance. He certainly tries for more improvement via medication and routine exercise, but he still cannot help but become depressed at times, and his sudden fame makes him all the more conscious of his appearance.

As staying in Nashville just like many other musicians like him, Tennessee along with his supportive fiancée, Kahan kept trying to make the next step for his career, though he came to feel more pressure and stress instead. We see him and his colleagues trying to record the songs for his upcoming new albums in a local studio, but he becomes frustrated again and again because he is not satisfied with his performance at all, and we can clearly sense his growing exasperation.

Nevertheless, Kahan eventually found a way to the next chapter for his life and career. After he did not disappoint his audiences at all at his concert held in Boston, he moved back to his hometown, which gave him some peace of mind in addition to reminding him of what has always inspired him for many years. Once he found what really worked for him and his talent, he went all the way for that without hesitation, and, as some of you know, his new album will be released on next Friday.

Now I must say that I did not know anything about Kahan before reading a review on the documentary, but, as far as I can observe from the documentary, his songs are good and interesting on the whole. As expectedly presenting a number of notable songs from him, the documentary accentuates the poetic sides of some of them as presenting their lyrics on the screen, and you will get more understanding on how his songs have appealed to millions of fans and admirers out there.

In conclusion, “Noah Kahan: Out of Body”, directed by Nick Sweeney, is a bit too good and sincere to be dismissed as another typical promotional musician documentary, and I came to appreciate Kahan’s personal and artistic integrity after watching it. As briefly shown to us at the end of the documentary, he still has many issues to deal with, but he will probably keep going on, because, in my humble opinion, he has considerable talent as well as enough personality. In fact, I may check on that new upcoming album of his for confirming that again.