Review: 'Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour' accentuates her gift for artistic reinvention
Deep bows to the Crown Princess of Pop, who turns "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" into the musical event of the movie year.
Here's the splashiest, swooniest, silliest and sweetest souvenir program ever for a concert film. And you can dance to it while belting yourself hoarse. As my friend Rob Sheffield wrote in Rolling Stone, "It'll make you sing, scream and sob." What's not to like?
Captured over three performances at Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium that ended the phenomenal seven-month U.S. leg of Swift's Eras Tour -- in-person overseas dates start in November -- this concert capture from director Samuel Wrench is no substitute for the thrill of live performance. But the camera brings us up close in a way that makes every seat the best seat in the house.
Shame on me for not seeing the movie in Eras cosplay or even a friendship bracelet, though her mostly female audience did just that as they hit the movie aisles to dance and sing with their idol decked out in dazzling gowns, boots and bodysuits.
For the ticket price of $19.89 (Taylor's birth year), you'll see Swift spend two hours and 45 minutes -- about half an hour short of the live shows -- zipping through the high points of her career with the help of singers, dancers, costume changes and eye-popping stagecraft.
"The Eras Tour" divides itself non-chronologically among nine of her chart-topping albums, including "Lover" (2019), "Fearless" (2008), "Evermore" (2020), "Reputation" (2017), "Speak Now" (2010), "Red" (2012), "Folklore" (2020), "1989" (2014) and "Midnights" (2022).
Among the high points in this big-screen version of the concert: an opening medley of "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince" and "Cruel Summer" that intros Her Highness like American royalty to a stadium of screaming fans and swaying smart-phone flashlights that evoke a rally ready to elect their leader by acclamation.
Another highlight: "The Man," in which Swift uses electropop and synths to explode the myth of power and conquest as a guy-thing wielded by the movie-star likes of Leonardo DiCaprio. "I'd be just like Leo in Saint Tropez," Swift sings, attacking the double standard with stinging conviction.
"All Too Well" reveals Swift onstage in a sparkling red gown and acoustic guitar to take on the 10-minute version of the ballad that tackles the subject of heartbreak. Swift delivers this aching cry from the heart like a one-act play, turning a stadium of nearly 8000 into a private conversation between just you and her.
"Illicit Affairs," sung during the most often quiet "Folklore" section of the concert from a cabin erected on stage, shows Swift letting loose on all who would treat her like a child as she sings with genuine threat, "Don't call me kid! Don't call me baby!"
"Champagne Problems," a superb song from "Evermore" that Swift wrote with her ex-lover, British actor Joe Alwyn, is staged as Swift sits at a moss-covered piano to describe the emotional fallout of a failed marriage proposal. On stage, the impact could be lost in spectacle. On screen, it's indelibly intimate, a stirring tribute to Swift's gifts as a storyteller.
And it's as a storyteller that Swift truly shines. Filmmaking is definitely next for Swift. She's just signed with Searchlight to helm her first feature. Her directing talent is evident in her videos for "All Too Well" and "The Man." And this time-capsule-worthy concert film beautifully accentuates her gifts for artistic reinvention.
"Our Song," from Swift's self-titled debut album in 2006, is one of the two "surprise" tunes she performs in the movie. And there's Swift, at 33, channeling the eager, awkward, country-singing teen she was in contrast to the cultural force she is now.
And the future? You leave "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" with the exhilarating feeling that she's just hitting her stride.
