Noah Kahan: Out of Body (2026)
Noah Kahan arrived somewhere between folk and indie-pop at precisely the right moment. The Vermont singer-songwriter had been quietly building a following for several years before "Stick Season" turned into something neither he nor anyone at his label had entirely predicted: a genuine cultural phenomenon, the kind that crosses from Spotify playlists into mainstream radio without anyone quite noticing the tipping point. By the mid-2020s, Kahan had gone from playing small rooms in New England to selling out arenas on both sides of the Atlantic, a trajectory that is rare for an artist whose music is rooted so firmly in a specific geography and a specific emotional register. That tension between local identity and global fame is the engine that drives Noah Kahan: Out of Body, released in 2026 and running at a lean 96 minutes.
The film comes from a production partnership that signals real commercial ambition: Federal Films, Polygram Entertainment, RadicalMedia, and Live Nation Studios all have credits, which tells you this is a properly resourced piece of work rather than a scrappy tour diary. In the director's chair is Nick Sweeney, whose background in music documentary work has given him a sharp instinct for balancing the spectacle of live performance with the quieter, more personal material that separates a portrait from a promotional reel. The inclusion of Bernie Sanders, a fellow Vermonter with his own unlikely late-career cultural celebrity, is one of the more eyebrow-raising casting choices you'll find in a music documentary this year, though his appearance fits within the film's broader interest in what Vermont means as a place and an identity. For those who enjoy documentaries that use a single artist as a lens onto wider questions of home, belonging, and the psychological cost of sudden fame, this sits in interesting company alongside films like Jaha's Promise and Red Island, both of which use intimate portraiture to reach outward towards something larger.
Kahan himself is the film's obvious centre of gravity, and whatever one makes of his music, he is an articulate and self-aware subject. He has been open in interviews and in his lyrics about anxiety and mental health, and the documentary does not shy away from that territory. Whether he is performing to tens of thousands of people or sitting quietly somewhere in rural Vermont, there is a consistency to how he presents himself on camera, which either reads as genuine transparency or as a very well-managed public persona, depending on your level of scepticism. The film does not particularly press him on the distinction, which is perhaps where some of its limitations begin to show.
I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for American folk music, so when I sat down to watch Nick Sweeney’s 2026 documentary Noah Kahan: Out of Body, I was genuinely curious to see what made the singer-songwriter tick. I don’t mind Noah Kahan’s music (I quite like some of his tracks and appreciate the storytelling) but I wouldn't exactly call myself a fan. The film essentially serves as a comprehensive portrait of the artist, blending high-energy snippets of his massive live shows with a much deeper look into his personal background, his mental health journey, and his own thoughts on his rapid, somewhat unexpected rise to global fame.
From a purely technical and structural perspective, Sweeney has put together a highly polished and genuinely interesting piece of work. The documentary is incredibly well-produced, seamlessly weaving the raw, visceral energy of Kahan’s stadium-sized performances with much quieter, more intimate moments backstage and on the tour bus. You get a real sense of the man behind the microphone as he reflects on his roots in Vermont and the sheer whiplash of his sudden superstardom. It’s a solid, engaging look at the machinery of modern folk-pop, and as a straightforward music documentary, it certainly does its job beautifully, keeping the pacing tight and the visuals striking.
However, I have to caveat this with a massive disclaimer regarding its broader appeal. If you aren't already a devoted fan of Noah Kahan, you might find yourself slightly disconnected from the sheer reverence the film holds for its subject.
For the casual viewer or a non-fan, the deep dives into his personal anxieties and the endless parade of tour life might feel a touch self-indulgent. But if you’re already singing along to his biggest hits in the car, you’re undoubtedly going to lap this up and find it deeply moving. Overall, it’s a highly watchable, well-crafted documentary that captures a specific moment in time for a very specific artist.
Noah Kahan: Out of Body is a cracking, polished music doc that will absolutely delight the faithful, even if it doesn't quite cast a spell on the uninitiated.
Music documentaries have always occupied an odd space: they are simultaneously a commercial product for the fanbase and, at their best, an argument that the artist in question matters to people beyond it. The stronger entries in the genre manage to make a convincing case to the unconvinced, and that is the standard against which Out of Body will fairly be measured by anyone arriving without a prior attachment to Kahan's catalogue. Sweeney's film is polished but uneven in its ambitions, generous to its subject in ways that fans will treasure and sceptics will notice. If you've found yourself reading other music-adjacent reviews here on Movies With Macca, such as our look at Dr. Ben, you'll know that craft alone doesn't always carry a documentary home. Out of Body is well made and worth your time if Kahan's world is already your world. For everyone else, it's a perfectly decent Saturday evening watch that you'll probably forget by Sunday.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2026 | Watched: 2026-06-29
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Noah Kahan: Out of Body (2026) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon US
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