The film, a visually stunning behind-the-scenes look at the superstar’s first world tour since 2016 and the latest piece in Beyoncé’s half-a-billion-dollar empire, gives fans an expansive, nearly-three-hour panorama of the singer’s $579 million mega-tour. (To date, it’s the second-highest-grossing tour by a female artist ever.) Add in some well-timed insight into the inner workings of the Beyhive and the machine that is the “Renaissance” tour, as well as Beyoncé’s role as the auteur behind it all, and the movie hits its marks.

Though “Renaissance” doesn’t venture far beyond conventional concert film tropes — a quick, nostalgia-fueled trip to Beyoncé’s Houston hometown, for example, is at once heartwarming and clichéd — it succeeds as a film that knows its strengths lie in not its form but its content. The “Renaissance” tour, with all its surreal visuals, high-fashion costumes and heart-stopping choreography, is the star of the show. As it should be: Beyoncé is best at doing what Beyoncé does. She and the film’s co-producers understand it’s better to allow the collage of concerts at the movie’s center to speak for themselves than to drown them out with bells and whistles.

Throughout, the film wrestles with how to define a tour and musical era that have been as impactful on Beyoncé’s career as they were for the millions of fans who came to see the tour over its five-month run. The “renaissance,” the film’s many on-camera subjects muse, is a “new beginning,” or a “rebirth,” or a “healing and hopeful thing.”

The thematic pulse of the “Renaissance” tour is, indeed, a lot of things. The 2022 album at its core, for one, is a sonic tribute to the house and dance music pioneered by Black artists in the 1970s and beyond. The tour’s choreography, furthermore, calls to the rich, decades-long history of ballroom culture, the underground pageantry scene driven by queer Black and Latino communities and known for pioneering dance moves like voguing. The ballroom scene is also, the film informs us, where a subset of Beyoncé’s tour dancers, collectively known as the Dolls, have their roots.

“My hope was the music from the ‘Renaissance’ would lead to some of these beautiful legends getting the flowers they deserve,” Beyoncé says in the film — just before it cuts away to conversations with such dancers as Honey Balenciaga, Carlos Irizarry and Amari Marshall, a few of the many artists spotlighted. It’s a move that contributes to an overwhelming sense of community, the feeling that Beyoncé and her team are one big, happy family. Or, as Beyoncé herself puts it: “There’s so many bees in this hive.”

The tour and its visuals take all these influences from Black and queer culture and incorporate them under an Afrofuturist aesthetic filled with robots, space exploration, high-fashion bodysuits and “all chrome” everything. In the vein of other Afrofuturist works like Janelle Monáe’s “Dirty Computer” or even “Black Panther,” “Renaissance,” the film declares, is the “powerful ability to imagine a different Earth.” In imagining this alternative reality, the tour skillfully holds feminism, queer culture and Black communities in the spotlight, giving the sense that the “Renaissance” is a safe and radically inclusive space for all.

It’s here that the concert film truly shines. Joyous scenes of concert attendees dancing, crying and screaming along to songs while decked out in their silvery best give viewers the sense they’re public witnesses to a cultural artifact in the making. “The audience is such an important part of the show,” Beyoncé says early on in the movie. “It’s more than a state of mind, it’s a culture.” Indeed, intimate shots of fans reveling in the joy of “Renaissance,” more so than Beyoncé’s confessions about her personal life and the struggles of ultra-fame, form the emotive backbone of the film.

“Renaissance,” as a film, isn’t concerned so much with helping audiences discover for themselves who Beyoncé really is as it is about proving what we already know (or think we know) about her. Beyoncé, the movie argues through a series of vignettes, is an indefatigable worker, a dedicated wife and mother, a community builder, and an unapologetically driven artist. Audiences are given quick proof for each of these identities through interviews, archival footage and black-and-white montages, and the film chugs merrily along.

But while there are no salacious details or plot-moving drama about what makes Queen Bey tick — and there shouldn’t be — “Renaissance” reveals something else, showcasing the joy to be found in cultural touchstones like the tour and the community built around it. At an early screening of the film, the theater was packed with fans wearing silver sequined pants, Beyoncé-branded fans and their best makeup. The point of a concert film, their presence argued, is, first and foremost, to make the concert experience accessible to more people. “Renaissance” knows that, and succeeds for that reason.

Unrated. At area theaters. Contains some suggestive dancing and song lyrics with strong language. 168 minutes.

Even a gimlet-eyed cynic can hope that this is one of the few “Bachelor” love stories with a happy ending. But fans of the show — and the millions who tuned in just to see senior citizens vying for a second chance at romance — know that real love and reality love are seldom the same thing. It’s fair to say this season was a big win for its playful and nuanced portrayal of older women and another loss for the notion that a television dating show is a safe place to fall in love.

“So everything you told me the other night was a complete and utter lie,” a devastated Leslie Fhima told Gerry on the finale. Leslie was the other woman in the final love triangle when he awkwardly attempted to explain that he meant all his professions of love, until he didn’t.

When the “Golden Bachelor” was announced earlier this year, there was curiosity primarily because women older than 60 are seldom featured on popular television shows, much less as romantic and sexual partners. The show became a pop-culture hit as the 22 women — ages 60 to 75 — competed for the heart of Gerry. Most were widowed or divorced and brought their life histories and experience to what is always a fraught process, adding a complexity and richness to the reality format.

The boomer women of ‘The Golden Bachelor’ are ready for some ‘me’ time

The premiere was fun — a showcase for the humor, savvy and glamour of these older women. Each woman tried to make a memorable first impression; Theresa, turning 70 that day, showed up in a robe: “Why not come in my birthday suit?” she said, and flashed what turned out to be a nude bodysuit.

But the tone quickly became more serious, the stakes higher. For many of the women, this was the first serious chance for romance in years. Gerry seemed like a great catch — handsome, attentive, romantic, empathetic. As the season progressed and the women were eliminated, the heartbreak hit harder. Faith Martin, one of the last three women, was crushed that he could declare his love for her and then poof — the relationship was just over.

It’s one thing to watch 20-somethings fall in and out of love; broken hearts seem par for the course when you’re young. It’s another thing to see older women fall in love and then find themselves cast aside overnight. “I’m tired of putting myself out there,” an exhausted Leslie said. “Time’s running out.”

It’s easy to blame the women — it’s a reality television show, after all, and they should have known better — but that underestimates how easy it was for contestants to get swept away in the fantasy world of the “Bachelor,” and their own romantic longing. The normal conventions of dating were packed into a tiny window of time; there was no chance for a measured, easy process of discovery.

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Then there are the issues of age, last chances and the relentlessness of time. The contestants were full of hope; one reoccurring mantra among the women was that going on the show opened their hearts to the possibility of love again.

New York Times writer Michelle Cottle watched the show and saw a broader cultural disconnect: the massive political and cultural power of aging baby boomers and their refusal to call themselves “old.” The “Golden Bachelor,” she writes, “holds up this kind of funhouse mirror to how Americans and baby boomers, in particular, are approaching aging in all of its weird glory, where you deny certain things and cling to the idea that you’re always going to be young, even as this is creeping up on you.”

Thursday’s finale featured a mix of pretaped footage and live interviews. A number of the eliminated women were in the audience, watching along as Theresa and Leslie went through the final elimination process at a luxury resort in Costa Rica.

Leslie was the front-runner going into the last day; Theresa was “a safe choice,” as Gerry put it. Both women spent a private night with him behind closed doors; both bonded with his daughters and granddaughters, both said they would accept a proposal if offered. Leslie was so confident that she bought a dress and wrote wedding vows.

Then things took a weird turn. Leslie sensed something was “off” with Gerry. He denied it, but it set off alarm bells. “Most of the time things don’t go exactly my way when it comes to relationships,” she said earlier, in what should have been a sign. Their date that night was a slow-motion train wreck, with declarations of love and then his deadly, “Be happy.” He told her what she already knew: He was in love with Theresa. A day earlier, he told Leslie she was the “one.” Gerry’s defense? He meant it at the time and “got caught up in moments. … I wish there was a better way of doing it.” (There is, but it’s not on a reality show.)

The following day, he proposed to a genuinely thrilled Theresa, who had fallen fast and hard for Gerry and told anyone who was willing to listen.

One of the more curious aspects of the finale: The Golden Bachelor lost some of his luster. Some fans saw the Hollywood Reporter’s story this week that revealed the grieving widower was not quite so alone as he claimed: A longtime girlfriend emerged, sharing less-than-flattering stories about their not-so-romantic relationship. Others found Gerry suddenly distant and defensive when he delivered the sad news to Leslie.

Some on social media hailed Leslie’s reaction — blindsided, angry, demanding answers — as the most honest in “Bachelor” history. Slate named her the real winner this season. Her live interview and reaction to Gerry (their first interaction in three months) made her an instant front-runner if ABC decides to air a season of the “Golden Bachelorette.” (Would she take another bite of the poisoned apple?) No details yet, but the network has already put out a casting call for another “Golden” series.

The big announcement at the end of the show? A “Golden” wedding in January, when the two lovebirds will begin the rest of their life together. “We’re going to do it as quickly as we can because, at our age, we don’t have a lot of time to waste.” said Gerry.

The message of the “Golden Bachelor,” said Theresa, is that love can happen at any age. “I think it’s given hope to so many people … It was like a cultural movement. It wasn’t just a show.” For her sake, we can only hope it’s real.