REVIEW: ‘Always Lalisa’ Shines The Spotlight On A Whole New Chapter

Lalisa Manobal, known worldwide as LISA, is best known for the highly acclaimed K-pop group Blackpink. Yet, as seen in Always Lalisa, the acclaimed rapper and dancer hasn’t had the opportunity to carve out an identity for herself away from the band. Over the course of a year during LISA’s break from Blackpink, director Sue Kim captures the highs, lows, and in-between periods of brief calm as the performer tries to make the most of the limited time she has to make her solo album, Alter Ego.

Told mostly in chronological order, Always Lalisa introduces audiences, both unfamiliar and familiar, to the early days of the young K-pop idol back in Thailand. Interview vignettes with her mother and her stepfather describing the kind of child she was, a fortune teller’s guidance to change LISA’s name from Pranpriya to Lalisa to maximize her star quality potential, and her extensive dance competition background paint a picture of the star’s potential early on before capturing the attention of YG Entertainment. 

Underneath Always Lalisa’s slick, visually appealing package is heartfelt vulnerability.

There’s a frankness to how Sue Kim and Lalisa approach tackling the idol’s K-pop training. While LISA spent much of her time at YG Entertainment developing her rapping skills for Blackpink, her natural singing voice was left to the wayside.  Anyone familiar with idol training knows the industry’s cutthroat nature and how easily idols get pigeonholed into their respective roles. For Lalisa, that meant being relegated to the group’s rapper, not the main vocalist. Part of what makes these moments in Always Lalisa so eye-opening is Lalisa’s vulnerability as she starts focusing on developing her singing voice for her debut solo album, Alter Ego.

If two things are abundantly clear throughout Always Lalisa, it’s that Lalisa aims to make the most of her year off to work on her projects, and that she truly never stops working. For those who don’t follow the idol or aren’t super in the know, we’re introduced to her newly launched management company, Lloud, with her manager, Alice Kang, helping her make everything she hopes to achieve come true.

Seeing Lalisa’s triumphs, as well as her missteps, makes her incredibly and necessarily human to the world.

The team hits nearly every goal, with Lalisa peeling back the curtain on most steps of the process and letting fans see a side of her that has been hidden behind the constraints of idol expectations. What keeps Always Lalisa from feeling too stagnant is that Lalisa’s fears and insecurities collide with real life. Hope meets failure when artist expectations don’t mesh with the image fans have in their mind of who Lalisa really is to them. Once success isn’t immediate and new goals are set, the stakes get even higher for the singer and her team.

No stranger to the K-pop industry herself, director Sue Kim plucks natural moments and seamless storytelling from the captured footage. Sure, there’s an air of predictability, with the peaks and valleys coming where expected. But with strong camerawork and visual flair, combined with concise editing that brings everything together, this one-hour-and-thirty-seven-minute film moves at a rewarding pace.

Even when Always Lalisa follows a predictable path to its end, it’s hard to look away.

Among the moments that might cause the biggest stir in Always Lalisa is Lalisa addressing the racial slur controversy. For those unfamiliar, Lalisa, along with other BlackPpnk members, was revealed in the past to have sung songs with racially charged language. At the time, it caused a major backlash. Lalisa uses the documentary opportunity to explain that YG Entertainment prevented them from making a statement. Despite the explanation, the damage may already be done for certain Blinks.

Whether you’re unfamiliar with the idol or a completely obsessed Lillie, Always Lalisa is a well-produced music documentary that is arguably one of the most visually appealing in some time, if a bit predictable in the inspirational path it takes. By allowing Sue Kim full access to her world, Lalisa grants the world a chance into her life, her mind, and creative process, bruises and bumps and all. 

Always Lalisa had its world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. The film is now playing in theaters for a limited theatrical release. The film will stream exclusively on YouTube Premium later in 2026.