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It opens with a clock counting down until show time — the dropped stomach, rollercoaster slowly encroaching its apex sensation — and then, a gentle fake out. Taylor Swift is heard before she is seen. “It’s been a long time…” her voice carries. Then the drop hits: an abridged performance of “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince” into “Cruel Summer,” a track that TikTok breathed new life into four years after its initial release on her 2019 album “Lover.”
This is the moment it should become clear: “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” film is a near exact replica of her blockbuster concert performance, which recaps all 10 of her studio albums across 17 years of recorded work. There will be no narrative breaks, no behind-the-scenes footage, no additional ornamentation of the monolithic set (with the exception of a few CGI effects and album title cards to introduce each epoch.) The film delivers on the promise of its title: this is the Eras Tour in full — conveniently viewable at an AMC theater near you.
For those who’ve managed to snag tickets to the Eras Tour concert, it is the ability to relive the experience, likely with loved ones who weren’t as lucky. For those who didn’t attend, it’s a chance to test expectations versus reality. But for everyone, it is the opportunity to have every seat in the house transform into the best seat in the house. “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” is all up close and personal footage from every vantage point, courtesy of Sam Wrench, who shot and directed it.
Where else but in this film can you be placed inches from Swift’s moss-covered “evermore” album -era piano as she introduces “Champagne Problems” — so close as to examine phalanges as they press down on the final notes of the song’s coda? And where else does it sound this good, highlighting sonic details that might’ve been missed in the stadium setting? Like guitars placed high in the mix on “Look What You Made Me Do,” differing slightly from the recording, or emphasis placed on moments fans have transformed into opportunities from insider participation, like when everyone shouts, “1, 2, 3, 4, let’s go, bitch!” in “Delicate,” as inspired by a viral video?
