Rating: PG-13 | Runtime: 169 minutes
Release Date: October 11th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Variance Films
Director(s): Sam Wrench

I guess you had to be there.

I don’t necessarily say that as a slight. As far as concert films go, Taylor Swift and director Sam Wrench’s crew spared no expense to get a ton of camera angles and great editing to give fans the tour experience all but a lucky few missed seeing in-person. I say it because it’s not that experience. And, in all honesty, it doesn’t really offer anything else to make up for the disparity. The beauty is that it doesn’t have to for its target audience to make it a hit.

I will say that the stage is absolutely crazy with rising cubes that double as video screens to keep everything in motion at all times while new sets are brought on to accompany the next “era” (or album since this “eras tour” is merely an extra long show delivering a “greatest hits so far” playlist).

So, you do have to be there—either at SoFi Stadium or in a sold out theater full of screaming Swifties—to make you believe you might actually be there. To a cynic like me who has no true opinion on the music (it’s fine), the result proves an overlong advertisement for the next tour, whetting appetites so viewers might fork over a lot more than the $15 (movie ticket) or $20 (the VOD rental fee) they paid this time.

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Taylor Swift in TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR.