Ivan Radford | On 24, Mar 2024

Director: Sam Wrench
Cast: Taylor Swift
Certificate: 12

The idea of a concert movie has often been a way for fans to relive a memorable occasion. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’s movie is perhaps the first concert movie to also be an essential way for fans to experience an occasion that they’d otherwise never live in the first place, after tickets for the actual concert tour became almost impossible to get. The fact that the film was the highest-grossing concert movie of all time at the cinema box office seems to back that up – and so it’s perhaps little surprise that a bidding war for the streaming rights ensued, with Disney+ emerging as the victor for an extra-extended cut of the movie.

Filmed over 3 nights in front of 70,000 odd people in Los Angeles, the concert is a blockbuster in its own right, condensing 17 years of songwriting into one massive medley. Calling each of her 10 albums “eras” might sound a bit much, but it’s a brilliant way to structure a gig, walking us step by step through her career – a journey of creativity as much as commerce.

It’s impossible to get away from the sheer scale of Swift’s career and financial success, but what the film captures so well from the concert is the songwriting skill that cuts right through it – there’s an intimate heart beating in each one of these tracks, and Swift performing it live demonstrates that with a sincerity that’s at once seamlessly professional and endearingly personal. She tells the crowd that this concert is the most meaningful thing she’s ever done, and you absolutely believe her. She’s as committed to the catchy pop of her earlier songs as she is to the nuance of her later numbers, packing in emotion and energy aplenty into every bar going.

Director Sam Wrench, who brough us Beillie Eilish Live at The O2, does a brilliant job at conveying that on camera, giving us enough close-ups and long takes – amid the myriad audience cutaways – to enjoy the simple pleasure of Taylor in action and resonating with a visibly invested audience. Some of the most understated production ideas – just casually putting on a coat for a costume change – are the most effective, but we get to appreciate the almost absurd level of spectacle for the technically astounding feat that it is. The office cubicle set for The Man in her Lover era, the moss-covered piano and the glowing orbs carried through the wooded Evermore era, the snake that erupts down the stage to announce the Reputation era, it’s a masterclass in the use of video backdrops and flooring to amplify the precise choreography.

While we effectively begin with Taylor on a podium by herself, the presentation gets more complex as the songs do the same – Tolerate It gets a movingly effective dinner table scene to accompany it, while Anti-Hero features a giant version of herself on a screen and, most striking of all, Look What You Made Me Do sees Taylor surrounded by dancers dressed as her from her other eras.

Already released on digital as an extended cut, the Disney+ version boasts Cardigan plus an another additional four songs – I Can See You, Maroon, Death by a Thousand Cuts and You Are in Love. If less is more, this mammoth musical epic is proof that sometimes, more is more – and if this is the only way to experience that, it’s more than worth the wait, whether you’re a fan or not.

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