A Review of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Movie
Taylor Swift: The Eras tour hit cinemas this weekend, bringing in 92.8 million in ticket sales over its three-day debut. Spanning her eras of music, the concert covers the different musical styles Swift has experimented with. While I had high expectations, I was still blown away.
The film starts with her Lover era, as she appears from beneath the stage in a colorful gemstone-ridden bodysuit. She passionately sings “Cruel Summer” and “Lover” as the stage behind her is set in warm tones of orange, pink, and yellow. As I anticipate one of my favorite songs, “The Archer”, I find she’s cut it from the film! Although she’s likely cut it for time reasons (the film is already almost three hours long) I still feel disappointed at the end of this era.
This feeling quickly disappears when Swift jumps out in another bodysuit, this one golden. As she puts it, this Fearless Era is filled with songs from her high school years. It really felt like I was at SoFi stadium listening to her live as I heard the crown belt out “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me”.
The next era brings a change in mood when Swift appears in a long mustard dress for her Evermore era. She sings about her late grandmother in the song “Marjorie”, and an imaginary love story in “Champagne Problems”. This era was solemn, as Taylor belted out emotional songs with the crowd singing along.
Yet another mood change ensues, as Swift dramatically reenters the stage for her Reputation era. Snake motifs are apparent in this album: they line the stage, the black bodysuit has a red snake climbing up it, and snake sounds are peppered throughout her songs. Bass-ridden songs like “Don’t Blame Me” and “Look What You Made Me Do” are a much-needed break after her heavy evermore era.
Tragically, her Speak Now era consists of only one song, albeit a good one. “Enchanted” feels magical as Taylor steps out in a large purple dress.
The Red Era is much longer, as Swift pops out in a white shirt and black shorts, singing “I Knew You Were Trouble” and “22”. But by far, the most memorable song would be “All Too Well,” her 10-minute version. Belting out every word of this song with Swift herself was a cathartic release, as I let out stress I didn’t even know I had.
Her Folklore Era is next, again an emotional album. She sings about an imaginary love triangle with the songs “Betty” and “August” and about rekindling old relationships with her song “The 1”. Her angelic white dress matches the mood perfectly.
Swift dramatically reenters for her iconic pop era, 1989. This was a dancing era, and dance I did to the songs “Shake it Off” and “Style”. Swift lights up the stadium with fire for “Bad Blood”, and struts around her stage in a two-piece skirt and crop top, laced with sequins.
I got a taste of her surprise songs next, “Our Song” from her debut album and “You’re on Your Own Kid” from Midnights. There was something about hearing these acoustic and live that made them feel so much more raw.
Swift ends with her latest era, Midnights. Her sparkly blue bodysuit matched her range of songs for this era, from “Bejeweled” to “Midnight Rain”. She danced, she jumped and she sang as the show came to a close. As she sang “Karma”, I then realized three hours had gone by. It felt like I was there for 20 minutes.
In every way, her concert was an artistic masterpiece, and the movie captured all of it. It really felt like I could watch it over again and I wouldn’t get bored. I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed it either: the theater was full of elementary schoolers and their moms, teenage girls, and older couples. It just goes to show Taylor Swift knows no boundaries.