Something to watch tonight: Thursday 12 October
Folklore: The Long Pond Sessions (Swift, 2020) is streaming on Disney+
Taylor Swift owns the movies this weekend.
When she announced that the film version of her Eras Tour was going into cinemas this weekend almost every other picture headed for the hills. My local multiplex has 12 sessions of Eras on Saturday alone. It’s a juggernaut.
If you don’t want to recreate a noisy stadium spectacular but still want a fix of Swiftiana (or maybe just see what the fuss is about) the documentary Folklore: The Long Pond Sessions is on Disney+.
During lockdown Swift – unable to tour – wrote and recorded a new record, Folklore and then she made a film of her performing acoustic versions of those songs. I wrote about it for RNZ back in December 2020:
With pandemic precautions still in place, she went to Long Pond Studio in rural upstate New York with her two songwriting collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner and a tiny crew (so small that the cameras were all operated by remote control and Swift herself is credited with makeup as well as direction).
Over a couple of evenings, the three-piece (with one notable exception) create beautifully sparse versions of all 18 songs from the Folklore record, interspersed with conversation between them about the songs and how they came about. Swift is obviously a very thoughtful writer and collaborator but, if I’m honest, I could have done with a bit less of that, especially as the result is over two hours long.
The highlight is the duet between Swift and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon (Vernon joining in from his home studio in Wisconsin) duetting on the song “Exile” through an outlaw’s bandana that might be a Covid-related mask or a gesture towards anonymity. In any case, it’s wonderful.
I’m not a huge follower of Swift but this film is great, and I think I would buy these versions of the songs over the original album.
Reader, I ended up doing just that.
That review for RNZ featured three music movies that came out around the same time, including Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You (Apple TV+) and David Byrne’s American Utopia (directed by Spike Lee) which at the time was on Neon but is now a digital rental from Apple or Google.
I also prefer Taylor's stripped down recordings! Which isn't stopping me and my American colleague taking our outfits (mine's '22', hers is 'Lover') and my bag of homemade friendship bracelets to the first Friday showing at the Queengate IMAX just down the road from Silverstream.
Event have squeezed me in to the 2.30 IMAX session. House seats. Amazing.