Tropic Sprockets / Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour
By Ian Brockway
The wunderkind Taylor Swift has an epic concert film “The Eras Tour” directed by Sam Wrench. The film is vivid, immersive, and lively ,and it is sure to please her legion of fans.
At age 11, Taylor was able to meet with record company executives and became quickly drawn to country music. At age 13, she found her own way to become original putting her own earthy spin on country. Her songs were sincere and heartfelt without pretense.
This film is nothing less than a gigantic and emotive Lite Bright construction. The spaced out Gothic minimal chords of Nico and The Velvet Underground not to mention the pensive extraterrestrial glam poetry of David Bowie have blended into the dazzling cyberspace positivity of Taylor Swift with her knockout costumes and her smooth high-heeled boots.
Under her happy self-deprecating surprised glances, the immense crowd becomes a myriad of human stars, galvanized to receive the Swift Charge.
The artist commands the stage seemingly by one touch of her finger. She is Taylor, The Good Witch, with all of music, electricity, and cyberspace at her whim. She embodies the all-positive philosophy of Barbie in musical form. The Woman is a prime mover, decisive, declarative, walking with purpose to get things done. Neon lighted houses are in the background. Domesticity under the artist is a multimedia event, always with an aesthetic eye.
Then Taylor appears in a black cape and hood, a Wiccan wonder with a knowing smile. Her entourage dances with pumpkin globes.
A highlight is the serpent segment, titled “Reputation,” when a huge projected snake slithers through the crowd. Not to be outdone, Taylor’s serpent suit, in red and black is a sight.
The artist nearly goes through her entire catalogue here from “Our Song,” “You Belong to Me” to “Shake it Off” and “Bad Blood.”
Intriguing moments are peppered throughout, showing young fans crying, emotionally overwhelmed.
Director Sam Wrench keeps the action going forward with speed, space, and great motion. Throughout the film we also marvel at Taylor Swift. By the end of the film, she transforms into a cyberspace being: bright, blazing, and capable of morphing into many physical incarnations, becoming a pixel of light only to vanish. It is a wonder that such a shapeshifter is not just a tech maven, but a musician of connection, empathy, and heart.
Such is the icon Taylor Swift.
Write Ian at [email protected]
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Ian, I wish you wrote for the NYT. Or take over their job of describing the Netflix movies going off air at end of month. Their reviewer is totally in love with his own stream-of-consciousness musings. You have smart insights, but you make the movie come alive to us, make us want to see what you saw (in most cases).