Taylor Swift is no stranger to self-reinvention. We’ve seen her at 19, with America’s sweetheart curls and bedazzled cowboy boots. We watched her chop off her hair, immerse her music in 1989 synth; saw her don snake-skin bodysuits for an edgy Reputation era. But Taylor wearing sweatpants in the studio, eating burritos with her team is a real Taylor we’ve never seen. A Taylor in tears, pleading with her publicity team to let her speak out about her politics. Throughout her decade-long career, we’ve seen plenty of perfect personas, but Miss Americana, a new Netflix documentary, stars a Taylor Swift unlike any we’ve ever seen.
We are quickly brought into Swift’s world. The opening shots depict quiet moments from within Taylor’s New York apartment: a kitten paws across a grand piano’s keys, Taylor sits by a window and flips through old journals. Her voice narrates these scenes, describing “a need to be thought of as good” by the public as a common theme throughout her diaries. These shots are juxtaposed with scenes of Taylor pacing backstage in a studded black leotard. Drums clap, steam shoots in ominous bursts of fog, a stadium of 60,000 awaits. As a towering wall of lights flash a blinding red, Taylor advances alone onto the stage. The sight can only be described as deafening, jarring, unsettling–to know such a monstrous production relies solely on her immaculate performance. These scenes are an impactful contrast to the serenity of Taylor’s home we saw just moments before.
We watch Taylor run off a plane into her mother’s arms, watch her gush to her team that she hopes her political statement “actually does something.” Taylor speaking publicly about her politics and her mother’s battle with cancer are just two of Miss Americana’s most moving narratives. After emphasizing how important the opinions of others were to Taylor, it is clear her mother’s health issues have contributed to her changing perspective: “Do you really care if the Internet doesn’t like you today if your mom’s sick from her chemo?” she says.
Though the lack of chronology made the film feel like an abstract painting at times, it gains steady footing with a distinct, overarching narrative. While reminding us of Taylor’s many reinventions of her public image, Swift speaks candidly about reinventing where she finds happiness. As Taylor describes finding a “happiness without anyone else’s input” through periods where the media detested her, Taylor’s emotional arc takes the spotlight. Despite this, many critics note that in a film about personal growth, Taylor should have acknowledged her mistakes while revisiting the Kanye feud. Instead, those events we remember all too well were reiterated, Taylor simply adding how they served as a catalyst for detrimental psychological pathways.
Miss Americana wasn’t perfect, but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. This documentary reveals that for a decade, a primary concern of Taylor’s has been to maintain a public perception of flawlessness. A perfect film wouldn’t have made sense – just as Taylor is human, this documentary needed to feel a little messy for it to feel real. Miss Americana starred a Taylor Swift we’ve never seen before: one that’s imperfect, and okay with it.
Featured image provided by IMDb.
