the eras tour movie is the only movie ever
and the Taylor Swift popcorn was pretty good too
This is Ottavia Paluch and you’re reading Things You Otter Know.
I know it’s a weird time of day (and week!) to be emailing you, but I fell behind on work during reading week (aka the exact opposite thing you’re supposed to be doing during reading week). I should be back on Saturday with a much more depressing post.
ANYWAYS. The world is full of serious problems right now but I’m going to take a point of personal privilege to talk about Taylor Swift.
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this already or not to y’all, but I didn’t get tickets to any of the 6 (six!) Eras Tour stops in Toronto next year. No one else I know did, save for I think one person. Hell, I didn’t even get a PRESALE CODE. I am still so bummed about that, especially because I have never seen Taylor live before.
The Eras Tour movie is for all of us, sure, but it’s really for all of the poor souls in my position - those who didn’t win out for a presale ticket and who can't afford an $800 resale ticket on StubHub. Granted, it is a hell of a consolation prize. I went to see it last weekend with two of my high school friends. One is a massive Swiftie and the other one isn't but we were both blown away by the hope of it all.
It is a goddamned spectacle. No grainy TikTok livestream could possibly compare. Yes, she cut “cardigan” and “The Archer” and “Long Live” and “No Body, No Crime” and the “Seven” interlude and "“Wildest Dreams” and the speech she does about mansplaining before “betty” and I know all of that sucks but we gotta take what we can get! And boy, have we GOTTEN.
I don’t even like going to the movies - it’s too loud and bright and annoying - but once I had my earplugs and sunglasses on (I swear I’m normal) it didn’t take long for me to throw myself into things like I was at the actual show. I lost my mind during “Cruel Summer,” having listened to it on repeat all summer like everyone else on Earth. Or during the reputation era, for instance, when she transitions from “Don’t Blame Me” into “Look What You Made Me Do,” it is the most epic thing to ever exist.
She did a bunch of songs from folklore and evermore that translated really well to the stadium setting despite sounding a lot more insular on the records themselves.
The way soft blue falls on her face at the end of “marjorie,” a song about Taylor’s grandmother but also largely about grief itself - so tender and so profound.
You’ll never look at “tolerate it” the same way again after you watch Taylor’s micro-facial expressions as she stares across a long white table at the dancer playing her lover. It alters your brain chemistry.
And then there’s “willow”. The black capes and the orange orbs and the choreography. The drums. They boom so hard. She made the whole era more memorable than some might’ve expected going into the tour. Props to her.
The stage. Oh my god. It’s a marvel. It’s not just a support - it adds to the experience. The Erasperience.
How trees grow out of the stage to mark the start of the evermore era, or the cabin in folklore, or when cracks appear as Taylor walks around during “Delicate”. I know it’s just a gimmick but I fall for it every time. I think it really speaks to the detail-oriented nature of the show. No stone is left unturned, no gesture is too grand, and there’s no such thing as having too many hits.
Her stamina is unreal. 80,000 Swifties are at a given show and she keeps up with us. When she and her dancers start can-canning (or something like that) during “22,” you want to get up and can-can with her and then you realize you can’t because you’re sitting in a reclining theatre chair.
When she does bring the energy down a little, like for the two-song acoustic surprise songs set, it’s ridiculously powerful. “You’re On Your Own, Kid” was just her and a piano, and I felt as if I was hearing the bridge for the first time.
I do wish her self-titled debut got more love than just a single acoustic version of “Our Song,” though. Like, she should be playing “Tim McGraw” on piano every night.
Maybe I was just getting lost in the Taylorness of it all but when we reached Midnights, the last era in the show, I couldn’t believe the whole thing was about to end. We all partied our way through the big hits and also lost our minds during “Vigilante Shit”. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen that chair routine on an IMAX screen.
Honestly, as nice as it would’ve been to have witnessed the whole show in real life, this thing might - might - be even better than the real thing. It’s going to go down as not just a concert movie, but as a cultural artifact.
Whether you’re a Swiftie or a huge hater (I get it), you’re gonna be telling your grandkids about this tour and its cultural impact. If I ever have kids I’m gonna play them Fearless front-to-back, and when that single snare snap of the title track breaks free I’m gonna say something along the lines of, “your mom heard this song live, and my god did she bawl when the chorus hit.”
I’m lying, partially. I didn’t hear it live. I saw her play it through a gigantic movie screen. But I was crying. There’s just something about it all. About that song and about her and about the show. It's flawless, really something, it's fearless.
🦦 —O— 🦦