“It’s a grower album.” Such is the consensus of the Swifties I spoke to who were gathered at the Picturehouse cinema in Finsbury Park, north London, for The Official Release Party of a Showgirl — a film celebrating the 12th record from the world’s biggest pop star.
The new music has received mixed reviews (with one paper even giving it one star) and some of her fans also have reservations. That said, they know it will grow on them. So they came decked out in orange, turquoise and sequins as is the theme of the cover art. Taylor Swift expects her dedicated cult to show up: the film she made of the LA shows in the Eras Tour became the highest-grossing of all time for a concert, bringing in $261.6 million.
But can this film match that? My screening was only a third full, if that. Nonetheless, the Swifties who were there whooped and shrieked, ensuring the atmosphere didn’t fall flat (though it is a shame nobody got up to dance at any point; my friends and I waved our hands instead). It began with Swift giving quite an off-the-cuff welcome speech, explaining we were going to see the music video for The Fate of Ophelia: the opener, and one of the best tracks on the album.
• The story behind every song on Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl
Swift took on many guises in this music video, starting as Ophelia in a pre-Raphaelite-esque paintings, then a Las Vegas performer, a Forties screen siren — these aren’t my descriptions, they’re the ones she used when she explained the concept from a director’s chair after it ended. She wanted to embody many of the different showgirls across entertainment history.
The rest of this 89-minute “dazzling soirée” was either BTS clips from that music video, or lyric videos for the other songs interspersed with Swift talking through their meaning from her director’s chair. Initially it felt a bit “is that it?”. Lyric videos with a visual or two clearly shot on the same day as your music video? BTS clips of your employees nodding enthusiastically at all your suggestions? Explanations that don’t go anywhere near the real reason behind the diss track, Actually Romantic, (believed to be about Charli XCX) or the potential backlash to Cancelled! given the current political climate?
But the thing is, Swift knows her audience. Part of the fun of being in her fandom is dissecting even those decisions, never mind her lyrics or choice of producers (Swedish duo Max Martin and Shellback rather than Jack Antonoff — approved by one fan I spoke to but not by another). Plus, there were a few insights like the fact she got permission from George Michael’s estate to call one track Father Figure. And I did like when she knowingly chose to spend mere seconds explaining Wood, the most Marmite of the bunch — everyone knows it’s about Travis Kelce’s appendage but you’re hardly going to hear Swift say that in a 12A film.
The film ended as it began: with the music video for The Fate of Ophelia. It would have been nice to see Kelce or Sabrina Carpenter, who features on the title track (the highlight of the album). The fact she padded out the running time by showing the same thing twice won’t endear her to her critics. Why show this in the cinema at all when other artists just release this kind of content on YouTube? It could be seen as a cynical capitalist move by the best businesswoman in the game. And it definitely is — at least partly. But don’t we want teens to get away from their phones and laptops and gather with their friends to talk about art? Aren’t we always trying to get people back to the cinema? When the lights went up, two 15-year-olds came up to me and my friends to offer us friendship bracelets. That wouldn’t have happened at home.
★★★☆☆
12A, 89min
In cinemas to Oct 5
Follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews