‘Bono: Stories Of Surrender’ review: U2’s Bono looks back in energetic solo show

Dir: Andrew Dominik. US/Italy/Ireland. 2025. 87mins

To mark the 2022 publication of his memoir ’Surrender: 40 Songs’ , U2 frontman Bono embarked on a one-man tour of intimate gigs throughout the US and Europe. Described as ‘an evening of words, music and some mischief’, the show saw the then 62-year-old Bono inter-lacing often-theatrical narration with snippets from his U2 back catalogue to tell his own story. In 2023, the star teamed up with director Andrew Dominik to recreate, and reimagine, that show in New York’s historic Beacon Theatre, and the result is an intense baring of the soul that is part performance, part confessional and all entertainment.

 Part performance, part confessional and all entertainment

Streaming on Apple TV+ from May 30 following its premiere as a Cannes Special Screening, Stories Of Surrender will be catnip for Bono/U2 fans. Although they may miss the presence of other U2 members (The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr), Bono performs with cellist Kate Ellis, harpist Gemma Doherty and U2 producer Jacknife Lee to breathe fresh life into hits like ’Sunday Bloody Sunday’, ’Vertigo’ and ‘Beautiful Day’. Notably, this is the first feature to be shot in Apple Immersive Video for the Apple Vision Pro.

“Writing a memoir is a whole other level of navel gazing,” Bono admits early on and, at first, it seems as if this may be just another exercise in such. Shot in stark black-and-white, on a minimal stage, the film begins with Bono energetically recreating his life-threatening 2016 heart surgery. It’s a bravura opening, an accomplished showman effortlessly turning emotion into entertainment for the assembled, adoring throng. But then, as he uses this as jumping off point to reflect on his life and near-50-year career, the artifice begins to crack.

Co-writing the show with Bill Flanagan, and dividing it into chapters, Bono speaks candidly on a variety of topics, ranging from his parents and Irish roots to his wife and children and his stratospheric music career. While the subjects may not be particularly surprising, Bono’s telling of pivotal moments in his life is certainly arresting. Weaving recollection, recreation, drama and song, he takes the audience from the schoolboy Paul David Hewson to the Grammy Award-winning, stadium-filling rock star he is today. Particularly poignant are moments in which he talks about the death of his mother Iris, when he was just 14, and his re-enactment of conversations he had with his hard-to-please father, wannabe musician Brendan Hewson.

Dominck has already made two thoughtful rock documentaries with Nick Cave, One More Time With Feeling (2016) and This Much I Know To Be True in 2022, and he has a kinship with the art, while he’s also well known for kinetic drama including Blonde, also in 2022.  The setting here may be more contained, but the energy is high. Shooting in black and white – aside from a cathartic closing moment in full colour – DoP Erik Messerschmidt (Mank, Ferrari, The Killer) alternates between intimate close-ups, high-angle wide shots and swooping, immersive camerawork. Editing, from Lasse Jarvi, is equally as pacey.

Yet the quieter moments, some of which see Bono provide additional, direct-to-camera narration, are the most effective, as he muses on his religious faith, his philanthropic motivations, his own fatherhood, his position of privilege. This ‘Surrender’ project is, Bono admits, an attempt to cast off the mask of fame and reveal his true self. While many may question whether doing that in front of an audience dilutes the sense of genuine revelation, there is no denying Bono’s frankness, honesty and humour – and that he remains one hell of a raconteur.