Courtney Howard // Film Critic
TAYLOR SWIFT: THE OFFICIAL RELEASE PARTY OF A SHOWGIRL
Not Rated, 1 hour and 29 minutes
The Eras Tour clock countdown that begins TAYLOR SWIFT: THE OFFICIAL RELEASE PARTY OF A SHOWGIRL heralds a brand new era of the titular superstar’s reign as pop royalty. With this special theatrical event, she delivers an age-inclusive, weekend-long, nationwide party for fans (new and old alike), turning cinemas into a record store listening booth. All that’s missing is a pop-up gift shop to purchase vinyl records, CDs and cassette tapes and other merchandise on the way out. In this feature-length extravaganza, her mettle, fortitude and collaborative artistry take center stage. It’s an immersive affair emphasizing the crowd experience – one she genuinely values as a performer and one we feel as movie theater patrons.
She begins the adventure telling us what we can expect over the next hour and a half: A new music video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” behind-the-scenes footage from that shoot, confessional style interviews explaining the meaning of the tracks on her literally glittering album, “The Life of a Showgirl” and sparkling, kaleidoscopic lyric videos for the other 11 tracks. Her music and lyric videos are scheduled to be on YouTube on Sunday, October 5 at 7pm ET, if not showing up via pirated sources on your social media feeds sooner than that (Tsk! Tsk!).
Because of Swift’s younger fan base, the songs play as the clean versions rather than sourcing from the album’s explicit iteration.Hearing these lyrical changes, my theater full of adults bonded instantly over the airline/ television-approved version of “Father Figure,” which re-writes “my dick’s bigger” to “my check’s bigger.” Not too shabby a trade to maintain Swift’s salty bravado. Later, however, further deviations would have us giggling in jovial indignation over the “thighs” to “skies” word change in “Wood,” and the more innocuous skip of the f-word in “Wi$h Li$t.”
Our hostess, clad in “Reputation” red-and-black color palette, also got pretty spicy when discussing the meaning behind her alleged diss track “Actually Romantic.” Though she didn’t name names (Swifties speculate it’s about Charli xcx’s vulnerably introspective song, “Sympathy is a knife”), she said, “Sometimes you don’t know you’re a part of someone else’s story, but you are,” seconds later feigning a conversation with her unnamed muse, “That’s very sweet of you to think about me this much. In my industry, attention is affection – and you’re giving me a whole lot of it.” She also played it coy while explaining the inspiration behind “Wood,” innocently declaring it’s about “superstitions” and “black cats.” She earned our shared laughter there.
The main spectacle is the Swift-directed music video for the 80s synth-heavy/ Lana Del Rey-esque ditty that takes us through a historical tour of showgirls past, starting by mimicking pre-Raphaelite beauty Ophelia (in John Everett Millais’ painting) through “a pop star on the Eras Tour,” as herself in a confetti-and-champagne-strewn hotel room after party, twisting the Shakespearean lore (for a second time in her career) through song. Vegas showgirls enchant. 60s style cabaret dancers dazzle. And the Swift squad parties hard. Her storyline of a woman drowning in fame, fandom and potentially water is littered with Easter Eggs, one of which being that the chanteuse baked the sourdough loaf in the video. In rehearsals, Swift eagerly shares clever ideas with her teammates who quickly recalibrate dance moves, props and lighting to best suit her creative whims. She’s as much at home on center stage as she is in the director’s hot seat.
On screen, the craftsmanship is a brilliant chorus exacted by choreographer Mandy Moore, cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, and production designer Ethan Tobman. Tobman’s work shines during the pirate ship segment, channeling filmmaker Karel Zeman’s animated practical effects last used in BARBIE during the transportation montage (a film shot by Prieto). The reassembled, amazingly talented Eras Tour dancers deliver their hallmark high-caliber power wattage, surging with electricity in the Esther Williams/ Busby Berkeley homage section. Performing precisely to a click track – as seen in the inter-spliced making-of-footage sequences – shows off their prowess as a team, completely locked-in.
Though TAYLOR SWIFT: THE OFFICIAL RELEASE PARTY OF A SHOWGIRLisn’t a visual album like Beyonce’s “Lemonade,” nor is it an experimental sonic salute like Miley Cyrus’ “Something Beautiful,” it gets the job done. For those who simply want to enjoy Swift’s tailored (Taylor’d?) soundscape as a community, this makes everyone a Swiftie, at least for an on-brand 89 minutes in their lives.
TAYLOR SWIFT: THE OFFICIAL RELEASE PARTY OF A SHOWGIRL is now playing in theaters through October 5.
