The Personalities Break Through the Packaging

MOVIE REVIEW
KATSEYE: Wild Hearts
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Genre: Documentary, Music
Year: 2026
Runtime: 1h 20m
Director: Nadia Hallgren
Where to Watch: premiering on Hulu and Disney+ October 16, 2026

RAVING REVIEW: I knew going into KATSEYE: WILD HEARTS that objectivity was going to be a little harder than usual because I’ve become a pretty big KATSEYE fan. Putting Sophia, Daniela, Lara, Megan, Yoonchae, and Manon on screen together for 80 minutes already gives this documentary an enormous head start with me.

Nadia Hallgren’s film somehow understands that perfectly, delivering something designed first and foremost as a celebration of the group, their rise, and the EYEKONS who helped push them into global pop stardom. That also becomes a limitation, because the same documentary that gets close enough to show real strain rarely stays there long enough to challenge the larger world surrounding them.

I genuinely loved the experience, and their personalities are strong enough that even rehearsal footage, recording sessions, photo shoots, and the members simply messing around together can be entertaining. At the same time, WILD HEARTS repeatedly approaches subjects that could make this much more revealing, only to move on before the conversation gets uncomfortable for an admitted fan, which creates an unusual push-and-pull. I enjoyed nearly every minute, though I also wished the documentary would challenge the system surrounding these women more.

KATSEYE was built through a huge multinational entertainment operation designed to create a global girl group. WILD HEARTS isn’t particularly interested in debating that origin; instead, it focuses on what happened once all the moving pieces were in motion. The answer is that it worked unbelievably fast, and the documentary never lets us forget how quickly everything changed. KATSEYE moves from a newly debuted group still establishing an identity to viral songs, increasingly intense fan attention, and the kind of online scrutiny where every expression can become a discussion.

What makes the documentary so engaging is seeing how quickly the members themselves have had to adjust. They remain the reason the movie succeeds, because their individual personalities keep breaking through the structure built around them.

Sophia naturally carries herself like the group’s leader without needing the title reinforced. Responsibility gravitates toward her, questions get directed her way, and the other members often look to her when a situation needs direction.

Daniela offers something different. She’s explosive onstage and an incredibly confident performer. Her connection to “Gabriela” gives the documentary one of its more personal cultural moments, because singing in Spanish and connecting with Latino fans clearly carries meaning beyond simply having another hit song.

Yoonchae’s development produces some of the quieter material that I appreciated most. She talks about previously falling back on the same safe expression whenever cameras appeared, almost as if she had created a version of herself specifically for being photographed. Watching her become more comfortable showing other sides of her personality says a lot about how she adjusts to fame without needing a giant speech.

Megan provides some of the documentary’s most vulnerable moments, particularly when she talks about therapy, anxiety, and the physical demands of performing. KATSEYE’s choreography is exhausting even when everyone is healthy, and watching it rehearsed repeatedly removes the illusion that six exceptionally talented people walk onto a stage.

The film deserves credit for showing that work instead of only presenting the finished performances. Choreography is drilled repeatedly, injuries happen, days stretch on longer than anyone wants, and what audiences eventually see for seconds in a music video may have required hours of repetition, correction, and physical strain. That’s where my admiration for KATSEYE somehow grew rather than just being reinforced. It’s easy to watch the finished result and say they’re incredible performers, but seeing what happens before that makes their precision considerably more impressive.

Lara also emerges as one of the documentary’s most interesting creative voices, especially through her involvement with “Unloveu.” Her attempts to move further into songwriting matter because they represent a step toward having a greater hand in KATSEYE’s music rather than only performing material handed to the group. Seeing her ideas finally enter the recording process gives the film a clear glimpse of what KATSEYE might become as the members gain more creative control. I wanted considerably more of that side of the story, because it opens questions the documentary only partially answers.

Who decides what KATSEYE sounds like, and how much input do the members have when major decisions are made? Where do disagreements happen, and what occurs when someone hates a song, choreography decision, or concept they’re expected to sell enthusiastically? WILD HEARTS offers pieces of those answers but doesn't spend enough time on them. The section on “Gnarly” comes closest, because the song drew enormous backlash before ultimately becoming one of the group’s defining moments.

Lara’s determination to stand behind the song matters because the story isn’t simply that audiences eventually changed their minds. It’s also about artists deciding whether to believe in something when thousands tell them it’s terrible. The documentary inevitably turns that experience into another victory, and that pattern repeats throughout the film. Something hurts, someone struggles, the group perseveres, and another milestone arrives.

There’s nothing dishonest about celebrating resilience, especially when KATSEYE has accomplished so much in so little time. The problem is that hardship doesn’t always need to become inspirational before the scene ends, and sometimes exhaustion is simply exhaustion. Criticism can still do damage even if the song becomes successful later, and taking a break doesn’t need to be reframed as evidence that everything will automatically come back stronger. WILD HEARTS understands the cost of success, but it rarely lets that cost sit unresolved for long.

That becomes especially difficult to ignore because of Manon, whose limited presence hangs over the documentary even when she isn’t physically present. The film acknowledges her hiatus and makes clear that the other members still care deeply, which is better than pretending nothing changed. She’s noticeably less present than everyone else, especially in the direct interview material that lets the other women explain how they’re experiencing this enormous transition. As a fan, I wanted more of Manon’s perspective because she’s part of the same journey the documentary is trying to document.

That doesn’t mean I wanted gossip or speculation about things nobody outside their circle actually knows. I wanted to hear her perspective on the same pressures, opportunities, and changes everyone else is discussing. Her limited presence becomes even more noticeable because WILD HEARTS sells itself on intimacy. When the documentary promises a close look at the group, one member becomes easier to see than to hear, creating a gap the film never fully resolves.

The film was completed before all of the circumstances surrounding its release could settle, and the subsequent hiatus involving Sophia adds another layer to what we’re watching. When members discuss pressure, injury, anxiety, exhaustion, and the importance of mental health, it becomes difficult to treat those comments as just another obstacle in an inspirational success story.

There’s a difference between understanding what a documentary is and ignoring what it avoids. Hallgren captures enough genuine vulnerability that I don’t think WILD HEARTS feels empty or completely manufactured.

Megan talking about therapy doesn’t feel fake, and neither does the strain visible during rehearsals. The fatigue doesn’t look fake either, while the friendship between these women certainly doesn’t strike me as something invented for cameras.

If anything, those moments make me want to trust the film more. KATSEYE doesn’t need to polish every difficult moment into proof that everything worked out, because these women are interesting enough without being packaged as an uninterrupted success story.

The fan material works much better for me because the relationship between KATSEYE and EYEKONS genuinely is part of this story. This group has developed alongside social media in a way earlier pop groups couldn’t have, with fans creating edits, memes, dances, reaction videos, and entire online communities that become part of the group’s public identity.

KATSEYE sees that material too, which creates a relationship with fandom that’s both incredibly rewarding and probably exhausting. The same platforms that can convince someone across the world that these six women understand them can also deliver thousands of negative comments directly to the artists being discussed. WILD HEARTS understands that contradiction, even if it doesn’t fully explore it. The film repeatedly shows how fan love can become a source of energy, while the darker side of constant visibility lingers at the edges.

KATSEYE: WILD HEARTS succeeds wonderfully as a celebration and only partially as an examination. Nadia Hallgren captures the extraordinary amount of work behind KATSEYE’s seemingly overnight rise, and the members are charismatic enough to overpower almost every limitation of the format.

The frustrating part is realizing there’s an even better documentary hiding inside this one. It shows up when Megan discusses therapy, when rehearsal stops looking glamorous, when Lara fights for creative participation, when Yoonchae talks about her relationship with cameras, and in the noticeable space Manon leaves.

Those moments suggest a much more complicated story about six young women becoming globally famous inside a machine moving incredibly fast. WILD HEARTS sees that story, but it isn’t ready to fully tell it yet. I wore a huge smile through much of this, and that absolutely matters to my response. As a reviewer, I kept wishing the camera would stay on another five minutes whenever that smile got complicated.

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[photo courtesy of HULU, DISNEY+]

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