I, Kristian Lin, being of sound body and relatively sound mind, hereby resolve not to quote any Taylor Swift lyrics in this review of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. I’m not going to do it because it’s too easy to do, and, as NFL announcers have proven recently, it’s too easy to do badly.
They didn’t hold any press screenings for the concert documentary, so I shelled out $19.89 (no, really, the ticket price is the same as the year of her birth and the title of one of her albums) and saw the movie with a bunch of little girls running around and singing along with Taylor. That’s probably the proper way to see this movie, but I dare say this film is strong enough to hold up even if you’re watching it on your phone by yourself six months from now.
As you’ve no doubt heard already, The Eras Tour is a career retrospective with Swift singing songs from all her previous albums. It does not proceed in chronological order, which is probably a wise decision — putting the songs from folklore and evermore together would be too much rustic mysticism in one stretch. The film documents the last performance in that tour’s first leg, at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
I tend to prefer context with my concert documentaries. If you’re only going to show the performances, the fans might as well just buy a ticket to the show, yes? In this particular case, though, some of us don’t have the coin for tickets, parking, concessions, and all that. Lana Wilson’s 2020 documentary Miss Americana does a pretty good job of providing the behind-the-scenes stuff on Swift, and some of the greatest concert documentaries (like the recently re-released Stop Making Sense) stand on just capturing the immediacy of the concert experience, not to mention their creative filmmaking and stagecraft.
What I see here is a performer who understands stagecraft as well as David Byrne himself does. Swift appears from underneath her backup dancers’ flowing capes to sing “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince,” and when I saw that, I thought, “Well, that’s an entrance.” The stage turns into a corporate office for “The Man,” and has backup dancers in glass cages for “Look What You Made Me Do,” both effectively complementing their songs. (Tour choreographer Mandy Moore, who also did the dances for La La Land, deserves some credit here.) Maybe the moss-covered piano she plays on “Champagne Problems” is a bit much, but the dancers in robes holding glowing balls of light is an impressive backdrop for Swift’s Stevie Nicks impression on “Willow,” and that giant snake coiling around the stage to introduce the Reputation part of the show? Hella impressive. As a dancer, Swift has nothing on her peers like Beyoncé or Lady Gaga (something she commented on hilariously in her “Shake It Off” video), but she has indefatigable levels of energy. In her film appearances, she tends to make herself look like a big klutz for comic effect, but here she commands the stage as she moves around. As for director Sam Wrench, he may not be as inspired as some of the best concert documentarians, but he makes no overtly wrong moves and captures the dynamism of the show over the course of the movie’s 168 minutes.
If you’re an agnostic about Taylor Swift, this movie will at least show you the ease with which she connects with her fans. I myself am somewhere between that and being a Swiftie, and this film pushed me toward being the latter. I’m somewhat disappointed that she left my favorite song of hers (“Mine”) off the set list, and the movie cuts out “Wildest Dreams.” Even so, I’ve always admired her sturdy songcraft — really, that 10-minute version of “All Too Well” has no right to work as well as it does — and I was introduced to a couple of her songs that I might add to my Spotify playlist. I’m not sure what else you’d want from a concert movie. The Eras Tour has already become the biggest hit of all time in the genre, and it’s good value for that honor.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour
Starring Taylor Swift. Directed by Sam Wrench. Rated PG-13.
