Jamie Skinner 'can’t confess as being anything close to a Swiftie' as he rates Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour four stars!

Cert - 12, Run-time - 2 hours 49 minutes, Director - Sam Wrench Concert film of Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour.

I can’t confess myself as being anything close to a Swiftie. In fact, I’m far from one of the thousands of audience members crying, screaming and singing along in California’s SoFi Stadium as Taylor Swift goes through some of the biggest tracks from her back catalogue of albums, going over seventeen years in just under three hours.

In total I recognised seven songs (almost all of which were hits from around ten years ago). Yet, while of course many will (and have) flock to this concert film of a tour that hasn’t even made its way to the UK yet - and won’t until next summer - for Swift and her music there’s plenty more on display. So, forgive me if for the remaining four hundred words or so of this review I state the obvious.

It’s hard not to leave this film with a huge admiration for Swift and her talent. She may very well be one of the most talented, and energetic, people working at the moment. For the almost three hour run-time she, alongside her backing singers, band and dancers, emits an infectious energy through ballads and anthems. At times this isn’t just a concert, it’s a full-on show. Sets come forward and create a music video style vibe, a new world for each moment (or sometimes each album - Folklore is contained within a cosy winter log cabin, the context explained by Swift as who she is in her mind).

Each scene or simple crowd-pleasing musical number - the likes of 22 and We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together are opened up across the stage inviting the audience to be a part of the celebration - is excellently caught by director Sam Wrench and his array of cameras placed around the stadium across three nights of the show. One of the first things that comes across from the film is not just the direction but how well-edited everything is. Not just in terms of giving you the best possible seat in the house, but also the most cinematic. 

So much of why this particular concert pops from the screen is down to the technical details and how they make the most of being projected onto the big screen. Yes, it helps that Swift and co can clearly put on a show (or ten) but just how the various dance breaks, costumes and moving stage pieces are caught have a great effect. Even the ten-minute-plus saga All Too Well - introduced with an amusing “I hope you’ve got a spare ten minutes” - simply sung on a podium, with a guitar and mic, has a strong effect.

Once it’s all over, with much of the run-time flying by, only slightly being felt in the final song or two, the colourful energy remains. Unexpectedly, this might be one of the best things I’ve seen in a cinema all year. Making the most of the big screen through excellent editing and cinematic tracking of the worlds in which the songs take place.

Jamie Skinner, four stars ****