On Feb. 14, a documentary about the Sidemen that had been in the works for several years released on Netflix U.K. Even though the video sharing platform YouTube has been around for almost two decades, this documentary is one of the first to look at specific content creators on a subscription-based streaming service.
Directed by Luke Hyams, “The Sidemen Story” delves into the past of the seven group members of the British YouTube group the Sidemen, including Olajide “JJ” Olatunji, Simon Minter, Joshua “Josh” Bradley, Tobit “Tobi” Brown, Ethan Payne, Vikram “Vik” Barn and Harry Lewis. The film reveals how they managed to find themselves where they are now and what their productions and efforts look like nowadays from a behind-the-scenes perspective.
Throughout the documentary, each Sidemen member gets their own segment, where their upbringing is discussed, as well as how it affected their growth as a person. Additionally, members share some of their private struggles and how they feel about their success. Brown, Barn and Olatunji speak about their parents and how much they changed their outlook on life, turning them into who they are today. The members reveal how their parents made them determined and hardworking to no end in the parts of life they’re most passionate about. Minter reminisces about his school life with Olatunji and how their friendship was one of the initial reasons that the Sidemen all got started. Bradley discusses his life with chronic anxiety and how it has changed his work, pushing him to work on the Sidemen channel more than the other members. Lewis talks about growing up in Guernsey and how the area felt like a massive playground, which let him be who he wanted to be; he got into YouTube early on by simply uploading childish skits. Payne goes into some of the darker topics of the group, such as how he was depressed due to his weight in the earlier days of the Sidemen and the comments on each video that stuck to him due to their negative nature. Eventually, after a night of drinking, he attempted to end his life, which fortunately failed. This led him to do a complete 180 in 2018, where he worked out until he lost 30 kilograms. Now, he’s the first of the Sidemen to have a baby.
Some other content creators were also asked about their thoughts on the Sidemen, such as MrBeast, Logan Paul and some of the Sidemen’s closer friends like JME, Randolph and Calfreezy. Many people who have worked with MrBeast behind the scenes over the years, coming over to the Sidemen channel for production and analytics, are always shocked that this group has worked out for so long because in today’s YouTube, creators always have to be following trends and uploading almost every day. Conversely, the Sidemen stick to a weekly schedule and make videos based on what they want. This exemplifies their standing as some of the untouchable leaders of YouTube.
The documentary also goes over many of the important episodes that changed their image as a group and their many outlandish brand launches that you wouldn’t expect from content creators, like a fast food chain or a massive clothing brand. The Sidemen have also done gigantic events, such as charity football matches that have raised millions. They even released a Christmas track, and it reached number one on the U.K. charts with the help of no one else but their fans.
Their fans have always been a massive part of everything they have done. Many people treat their “Sidemen Sundays” series as a weekly time to relax with loved ones and have fun watching these seven friends be themselves on camera.
In the end, if you’re not interested in the YouTube space, this documentary might not seem very interesting. But, as someone who’s known and watched the Sidemen for years now, I would say it was worth the watch as I got to know more about them through a well-formatted documentary. I thought that the production was high quality, they made use of a lot of older channel clips showing what they were like in their early days and even had recordings shot from a few years ago for the documentary. Interviewing some of their lesser-known but closer friends was important, and it shows that this documentary was well-thought out instead of being a simple method to generate exposure.
Rating: 3.8/5