The Best Movies of the Year: The Generation-Spanning Joy of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

By Amy Amatangelo  |  December 13, 2023 | 10:00am
Movies Features best of 2023
The Best Movies of the Year: The Generation-Spanning Joy of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

I will be the first to admit that I didn’t get all the excitement when Taylor Swift first announced her Eras Tour.

When all my friends were spending hours (Days? Weeks?) on their computers and using phrases like “access code” and “getting verified” by Ticketmaster, I paid vague attention but couldn’t imagine spending that amount of time and money (So much money!) for a concert. My kids liked Taylor Swift. I liked Taylor Swift. But I didn’t get the feverish hype. 

As time moved closer and closer to when she came to Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, the freneticism grew. People waited in long lines just to buy merchandise days before the actual show. People without tickets stood in the parking lot outside the stadium just to hear her. It was the TALK of second grade. I’m fairly certain no learning occurred that week. My two children, once kind of indifferent to going to the show, now desperately wanted tickets. When all my friends told me how amazing the concert was, I thought, “Well, you have to say that!” You spent hundreds (Thousands?) of dollars to see her. If the concert wasn’t a life-changing event, would you ever even admit that?

But when Swift announced her concert movie, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, it seemed perfect. We could all see the concert for less than $20 each. Still, I didn’t get it. 

Now I do. Going to see Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour opening night was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. There were friendship bracelet stations. People were in outfits. There was a “red carpet” for photo opportunities. It was the place to be seen. It felt like everyone was there. I saw people who live in my town and a guy I used to work with that I hadn’t seen in 15 years. My middle-school-aged daughter ran into friends when we got there and immediately asked if she could sit with them. 

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour began and there was dancing and singing and pure joy. There is so much bad happening right now, but for nearly three hours, everyone in that movie theater was happy. Everyone was singing. Everyone was dancing. Everyone was smiling. People whooped and clapped as if they were actually at a live show. I honestly have never seen anything quite like it. 

When Swift launched into “Blank Space,” my all-time favorite Taylor Swift song, my daughter came running back to join us in our seats so that we could dance together and belt out “Cause, darling, I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream!” Any parent of a tween/teen will tell you that a child leaving her friends behind to experience something with her mother is a special, lightning-in-a-bottle moment. Even as I type this, I get a little misty-eyed. 

And that’s when it really hit me. I always knew that Swift crossed any kind of generational divide. Kids love her. Tweens love her. High school students love her. Millennials, Generation—you name it. I remember when going to my first concert (Duran Duran), my mom sat there the entire time with her fingers in her ears. She made us leave before the encore. Having to leave the concert as they were singing “Save a Prayer” has become family folklore. 

My favorite singer as a teen was Madonna, who never met a controversy she didn’t like. I think my parents tolerated my obsession with the woman who writhed on the floor singing “Like a Virgin,” but they didn’t necessarily embrace it. But do you know what movie my mom just went to see with her friends? That’s right: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. My mother sat through a nearly three-hour movie of Taylor Swift songs—and she liked it.

What really struck me is that, when we returned to see Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour more than two weeks later, the theaters were still sold out. People were still in costume, still dancing in the aisles. During the peak of COVID, there was much consternation about the fate of movie theaters. Would people return, especially when audiences know they can eventually watch any movie from the comfort of their own home? But Swift once again made her own rules, creating a moviegoing event. Swift and her team (including her dad) made a deal directly with AMC to distribute the movie directly. They were the only ones who knew about the movie before Swift announced it. Currently Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, which is estimated to have cost between $10 and $20 million to produce, has grossed nearly $250 million worldwide. A singer may have just saved movie theaters, because once you finally go back to see a movie in a theater, you remember how great it is to go to the movies. 

As I’ve started to pay more attention to all things Taylor Swift, I am most impressed by her continuous ability to put herself on the tippy-top of the pop culture food chain. Just when the hubbub about Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is starting to fade, here comes the announcement that it will be available for streaming on December 13, her 34th birthday. And, in her classic strategy that should be taught in business schools, there will be a little something extra to entice you to purchase. The streaming version will contain three songs—”Wildest Dreams,” “The Archer” and “Long Live”—that were not in the theatrical version.

Of course, none of this would really matter if Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour wasn’t good. But it’s excellent. Even if you aren’t a fan of Swift’s music, you have to appreciate how the direction of the film draws you in, giving you a front row seat to the concert of the year while also providing a real vibe of what it must have felt like to be there in person. The movie cuts out any filler (costume changes, dance breaks) from the live version so you get all the best parts (albeit no real opportunity for a bathroom break).

Because of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, the connection I now feel to Taylor Swift seems almost personal, if someone my age can feel a personal connection with a megastar. Now, if the Eras Tour concert ever makes its way back to Massachusetts, you may find me spending all that time and all that money trying to get tickets.

Amy Amatangelo, the TV Gal®, is a Boston-based freelance writer and a member of the Television Critics Association. She wasn’t allowed to watch much TV as a child and now her parents have to live with this as her career. You can follow her on Twitter (@AmyTVGal).

 
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