By Claire Barickman A&E and Social Media Editor
Swifties it’s time to grab your friendship bracelets and hop into your getaway car, the “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” movie directed by Sam Wrench is officially in theaters. The movie is 2 hours and 48 minutes long and full of some of Taylor’s best and most bejeweled performances of her career. Taylor being the Easter-egg loving mastermind that she is, the ticket prices range from $13.13 and $19.89. The “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” has broken many records, the biggest being that it now holds the biggest opening weekend for any concert film by making over $100 million.
Throughout the course of the nearly three hours of performing Taylor takes the audience on a journey of her entire career taking time to honor each of her different eras including “Lover,” “Fearless,” “evermore,” “Reputation,” “Speak Now,” “RED,” “folklore,” “1989,” “Midnights,” and an acoustic set where Taylor plays two surprise songs.
Taylor opens the concert in the “Lover” era with “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince” along with “Cruel Summer” a song which has recently risen in popularity due to Taylor releasing it as a radio single after years of Swifties asking her to. The opening performance of this tour is absolutely stunning. Taylor’s voice sounds incredible while she sings and the background dancers do a beautiful job.
Taylor then takes the viewers back to her high school years with her performance of the “Fearless” era. This era is nostalgic for so many people, myself included, getting the chance to see her sing some of these songs on the big screen was such an amazing experience. Taylor’s performance of “You Belong With Me” was so fun and energetic. She danced with her backup dancers and singers as well as highlighted some of her band members including Paul Sidoti who has been touring with Taylor since the “Fearless” tour.
We then flash forward in Taylor’s career to the “evermore” era. This was the second album that Taylor released during quarantine so many of these songs were performed for the first time during this concert. The song that stood out to us the most during this era was “tolerate it”. Her performance of this song was absolutely heartbreaking and perfectly portrayed the imagery of the songs in such a beautiful way.
The best era of this concert was by far “Reputation”. Taylor’s confidence while performing the songs from this album is unparalleled. The visuals on the stage during this set was absolutely stunning and nothing like anything I’ve seen before. The way Taylor seamlessly transitioned from “Don’t Blame Me” to “Look What You Made Me Do” is what really solidified this era as my favorite set to watch.
“Speak Now” is a fan favorite era, however this era only had one song on the movie setlist. Even though only one song made the final cut it is abundantly clear as to why Taylor chose “Enchanted.” Taylor’s performance of this song is absolutely captivating; her voice sounds beautiful and the dress she wears is stunning. Some fans were sad to see that they cut Taylor singing “Long Live” from the actual movie however I feel that moving it to be the end credits was the perfect decision.
This concert has allowed Taylor to get the chance to perform some of her favorite albums like “RED” on stage again. During this era she sang some of her most well known songs including “22.” In fact while singing “22” Taylor began an adorable trend of gifting the hat she wears to one lucky little Swiftie, the most memorable of these being Bianka Bryant, Kobe Bryant’s daughter.
Much like “evermore,” “folklore” was released during the pandemic so many of these songs have never been played in front of crowds as large as the ones on this tour. The “folklore” era is one of my personal favorites and getting to see it on the big screen was such an incredible experience. Taylor’s costume during this era is one of my favorites. When she performs “august” the way the sleeves on her dress move makes her seem like magic; the fabric floats through the sky so gracefully it seems like she might just fly away.
As we continue our journey through Taylor’s career we visit one of her most well known eras “1989.” This iconic era was when Taylor took the pop world by storm after she fully left behind her country roots. Her performance of “Style” during this concert was everything I could have asked for; it perfectly captures Taylor’s pop princess essence and displays her vocal ability.
Taylor wanted to find a way to include some of the songs that didn’t make it onto the permanent setlist. She did this by adding the acoustic set or “surprise song o’clock” as many Swifties came to refer to it as. The first song Taylor played was “Our Song” on the guitar, which is the only song off her debut album “Taylor Swift” to be played during the concert. She then played “You’re On Your Own Kid” on the piano from “Midnights.” This was a very symbolic choice seeing she picked a song from her very first album and her most recent one to show how much she has grown as an artist.
Taylor took the viewers on a beautiful trip down memory lane, so what better way then to end the concert with music from her most recent album “Midnights.” This album is so new and exciting that getting to see it at last really added to the overall feel of it. Taylor has faced many ups and downs throughout her career but many of us can agree that karma has always seemed to be on her side, so what better way to close out the concert of her career than to perform “Karma.’ The fun colorful costumes along with the carefree dance moves perfectly summed up what it was like to experience this movie.
Overall this was an incredible concert film. The production and cinematography of the movie was amazing and perfectly captured Taylor’s essence. The costumes were some of the most incredible we have seen for a concert, with more than ten outfit changes throughout the entire concert. The stage design and graphics were phenomenal, perfectly matching the imagery of every album. Seeing this movie on the big screen was such an incredible experience and I recommend that anyone who even slightly likes Taylor Swift’s music go watch it.
