Taylor Swift – The Eras Tour – The Not Left Handed Film Guide

I’ve not really been aware of any concert films making it into cinemas since U2’s Rattle and Hum in 1988. There have apparently been a number of others since, although in my defence I’m not sure how many were released on UK screens. I certainly don’t think Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience and BTS: Permission to Dance on Stage were big here.

It seems the greatest box office here was earned by Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (I know why that one passed me by) with a nice $99M earned internationally. Some people count Michael Jackson’s This Is It which rang up no less than $261.2M but that was released after he had died and is actually a documentary including a lot of rehearsal footage for a tour that tragically never took place.

There’s no missing this one though. Taylor Swift’s capture of her huge Eras Tour, which has done all its dates in the US and Mexico but has yet to play in the rest of the world (it hits Britain in June) has already made Bieber the Baby, Baby, Baby, taking a million more in presales alone, and even if you do consider the Jackson movie then it’s certain to also Beat It.

Are you …Ready For It?

This film then, like the sold out tour itself, is getting quite the hype and I have to say that even without being there to see it live, it still lives up to it. Even on screen this is epic. What Swift has done, having released no less than four albums since her last tour is choose to feature all of them in this one gig. Having made that decision in fact, she went on to extend it to her full discography, hence this not being the Midnights Tour as it would have been if it had taken its name from her last album, but the Eras one.

It’s a little bold for a thirty three year old singer/songwriter, even one who has been recording for seventeen years, to name this after different distinct periods in her career. She has earned it though. Impressively she has had ten albums in that time, not to mention the four she has fully re-recorded following the dispute over their legal ownership. Seeing them played out like they are here, one at a time with generally between three and seven tracks chosen from each, it really does show how they separately represent varied eras from her career. In this one show she is Madonna, she is Adele, she is Stevie Nicks and she is Kate Bush because that is what it is to be Taylor Swift and by the end of her professional life, that will surely run for at least another forty years, she may well have eclipsed all of them. The songs here are by turns romantic, humorous and political, they are never not smart and always unfailingly catchy. I guess we knew it but this film leaves you in no doubt that this woman is a megastar.

As a screen presence Taylor Swift is confident, but never arrogant, and endearing throughout. When she is talking to the 70,000 Sofi Stadium LA crowd about herself, about them and about the singer/fan relationship it is a little bit corny but it still feels genuine and she manages to extend her reach to cinema audiences with just the right amount of glances to camera.

Perhaps it is no surprise given the ambition of this undertaking that this movie is just the concert. There are no backstage shenanigans as there sometimes are with these films, it doesn’t need the padding. From beginning to end it is two and three quarter hours long and it is a proper journey (if not a chronological one).

In case you hadn’t realised it, I was already a bit of a fan going in to this and certainly much of the joy here is in hearing familiar songs but I am sure this would be captivating for all but the most hardened pop hater. It clearly isn’t the same as being there, and despite having seen her live on two other occasions I am now even sadder that I didn’t get through on that ticket ballot. In the screening I was in though there were people singing and dancing (respectfully they did this in the side aisles so as not to block anyone’s view) and it definitely added to the whole experience. This is a communal film and the fun should be shared. I was happy to be there with family and we all had a great time.

I was initially surprised that the film opened here before the European shows had played but they are all sold out so it’s not like it can affect sales. If you are actually going to one of the UK gigs I think I’d say to wait. There are no big surprises in the staging here but you probably want to see it for real first if you can. This movie though, is a pretty cool alternative if you can’t. It’s an even better film than the video for Bad Blood, and let’s not forget that that starred Hailee Steinfeld and Zendaya.

As a little bonus here is my personal ranking of those eras. Taylor doesn’t give encores because she is in control without any facade but I still thought I’d throw this in at the end.

1. 1989 (2014)