I am not a Taylor Swift fan, but I was curious to watch this given the high ratings. I went in without expectations and was greatly impressed by the concert, quality of camera work, costumes, set design, and impressive level of crowd participation. For a concert film, the production value is spectacular and credit is due to the excellent direction by Sam Wrench. The dancers here are really talented and she surely is a great live performer. Highly recommended even if you may not consider yourself a Swift enthusiast.
There were a few standout moments for me in terms of songs. Anti-Hero had the best songwriting on display, objectively. Love Story is definitely a good song even if she was tonally flat for a good portion of it. Cruel Summer is a great track. She tapped into something nice there.
However, I can't help but find that her lyrics come across as somewhat corny, often incredibly basic, and her performance feels sometimes unauthentic, never reachinhg greatness. She's having trouble hitting vocal notes for someone who's supposed to be the most powerful pop star right now. Kudos for not using live Autotune, though, like most artists out there right now, or lip-syncing to her own backing tracks.
Set rankings:
1) Anti-Hero
2) Cruel Summer
3) We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
4) Love Story.
