Posted on November 8, 2023 by in Arts & Entertainment, Home, Opinion // 0 Comments
Jed’s Side:
“Sweeter Than Fiction”
“Don’t Blame Me” – this side by side and going to the movie in the first place were both Alissa’s idea. “Long Story Short,” I’ve liked Taylor Swift since “Red” in 2012, but she became my favorite in 2017 with her release of “Reputation.” After a “Cruel Summer” this year, though, my interests changed and she fell off her top spot until Alissa took me to see this in theaters.
I went into this movie with low expectations after my TikTok feed was filled with videos of teenage girls treating a movie theater like a stadium and running around and dancing and singing in a way that “Only The Young” could. I go to movie theaters for peace and quiet and to enjoy a good movie and did not want to have to tell some child “You Need To Calm Down.” “So It Goes,” though, that’s how I ended up seated in a movie theater to watch a prerecorded Taylor Swift concert with Alissa, boyfriends with their girlfriends, and a lot of other teenage girls.
I sat in that seat, waiting for the inevitable, but once the first song started after the ads, previews, and intro credits, I found myself doing something I would have never done “If This Was A Movie.” “The Moment I Knew” the melody of the first song that Taylor Swift was singing, I started to quietly sing along. “Call It What You Want,” but the vibes in that room were contagious, if not infectious – it started to feel more wrong not to sing than to be doing it.
It really “Hits Different” when something you’ve had more of a private interest in for most of your life, is able to be shared with a room full of people that get it. Me, a “22” year old man, felt accepted and honored to be singing out loud in a movie theater with a room full of teenage girls that I had expected were going to be the downfall of this whole event. Through no actual interaction with anyone else in the room besides Alissa, I had kind of felt like I had found “A Place In This World.”
“That’s When” I realized that as Taylor Swift was going through the eras of her music, I was able to relive the eras of my life when I had first heard these songs released. Never in my “Wildest Dreams” did I think that going with Alissa to that movie would project such a positive reaction out of me. Rather than just “Tolerate It,” one could argue that I may have enjoyed it even more than Alissa did, but apparently that’s up for debate.
“Everything Has Changed,” again, as I sit here writing this in my Taylor Swift t-shirt, having already listened to all of “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” which just released this morning. I know “All Too Well” the negative reactions that you can receive for liking something outside of stereotypical gender norms, so I’m here to tell you that breaking barriers and being different may not be easy, but it is certainly worth it to be passionate about something you love regardless of what anyone says. Because, as I sat there, next to the most important person in the world to me, in spite of everything going on in society and in our lives, “We Were Happy.”
Alissa’s Side:
Oct. 13, 2020 marked a drastic change in not only the landscape of film, but life as we know it. “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” hit theaters last month and immediately made waves. Of those riding said waves were renowned Swifties, Jed and myself.
I was overjoyed to hear that Taylor Swift was planning on making her concert into a film and releasing it to the public, after spending months envying all those we were able to acquire tickets for the live shows. Upon arriving at the AMC theater in Greensburg, I was expecting to find a throng of 12 to 20-year-old girls dressed in pink and sequins from head-to-toe. Granted, we did find that, but not exclusively.
In theater number thirteen (Taylor Swift’s lucky number), there were young, elementary-school aged girls with their moms, a few girls my age with their boyfriends, and a couple adult stragglers occupying seats away from the more populous areas in the theater.
Nearly every single ad that played preceding the film was specifically catered towards swifties, which Jed rolled his eyes at, but did nothing but delight me immensely. He came out of his shell later though, singing along by the end of the first song Taylor played (“Cruel Summer”). I was tremendously impressed with how unabashed of a Swiftie he was.
There’s a stigma around men and Taylor Swift, I know. I doubted I’d ever meet a boy my age, or at all, who openly enjoyed her music, never mind knew all the lyrics to her songs spanning from “Taylor Swift” (her debut) to “Midnights” (her most recent release).
A smattering of young girls and their moms sat behind us, squealing and clapping before the movie had even begun. Initially, we were both wary of them, and their potential for using maximum volume when they inevitably began to sing along. Yes, they were quite loud, but I couldn’t feel any way but charmed. They were exuberant, decked out in unapologetically girly outfits: pink and sparkles, the whole nine yards.
Growing up, I didn’t want to like Taylor Swift. She was deemed “boy-crazy,” and I was told that it was stupid to be one of her many devotees. Nowadays, I can’t help but feel that I still carry notions like that with me now, regardless of my feelings about the public perception of Taylor and what that may or may not have to do with misogyny.
But watching this film with Jed belting along with me, so much so that we both had sore throats well past its ending, and watching young girls rush down the aisles to dance beneath a 50-foot tall Taylor Swift, wearing just as much pink and just as many sequins as they were, was rewarding in a way I can’t put into words.
Taylor Swift’s concert film took the cinematic world by storm, and Jed and I were lucky enough to be in the eye of it. “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” broke box office records, AMC’s standard for pre-sale tickets, and is likely to shape the design of concert films for years to come. All said, Taylor Swift indubitably helped everyone discover their inner-Swiftie, from little girls to grown men. I feel a warning must be issued to film-goers and film-makers alike: Swift is swiftly taking over the film industry, and only a few names and titles will leave a legacy impactful enough to be remembered in film history: Tarantino, Scorsese, Swift, “The Godfather,” “Citizen Kane.” “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour”—playing in movie theaters near you.
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