REVIEW: 'Miss Americana' - Taylor Swift vs. the world

“The reason that the backlash hurt so much was because that used to be all I had.”

Taylor Swift recently won the artist of the decade award at the American Music Awards and it’s easy to see why. There hasn’t been another artist this decade that has taken over the cultural zeitgeist the way she has. From her five number 1 albums in ten years to her constant domination of celebrity discussion, to the endless cycle of hit singles - Taylor Swift stands alone in her singular domination over the industry.

And the journey has not been easy.

Miss Americana is complex, to say the least. It serves both as Swift's cry of anger at a system that has hurt her, but also as a triumph over that system. Taylor Swift proves her strength as an artist and her strength as a person here. It’s her own way of becoming victorious over the people who’ve worked against her and using that betrayal and those difficult emotions to prove herself.

The documentary follows her career from her earliest days before the release of her 2006 debut self-titled album until the present day. She recounts her rise to fame as a sixteen-year-old country star, to her infamous encounter with Kanye West at the 2009 VMAs, to her struggles with eating disorders and body image, to her sexual assault case, to her award-winning album 1989, to her year-long disappearance, to her creative process for her latest two records Reputation and Lover. The film covers a lot in a short amount of time in uncompromising honesty.

A contrast must be made with last year's Beyonce movie Homecoming - another successful Netflix documentary about a popular female musician (it placed 16th on my 20 best movies of 2019 list). Whilst that was nothing short of a celebration, Miss Americana is, yes, celebratory, but feels like more than that. Swift is coming out of a stage of hardship in her life and so the film reads as defiance to hurt and to pain. This isn't her at the top of her game. This is her at her lowest and her story of overcoming those feelings.

The film is about brokeness. Unapologetically so. Nothing is hidden here. Swift has completely opened herself up and is willing to expose everything she’s gone through, but she will only do it on her own terms. She will absolutely be honest, but she isn’t going to let that hurt her. Her honesty is her triumph. It's so refreshing to watch someone so important to our culture to be able to be this honest and this self-critical and critical about the world she finds herself in. Taylor Swift is dedicated to growing and maturing as a person and it shows. Her work here is truly inspiring.

How do we deal with hurt? Where do we place our pain? How do we manage our own self-expectations and ground ourselves in a world that will hurt us? These are the underlying questions Swift wrestles with here and she comes to some challenging and difficult answers.

I don’t want to come across like I’m saying the film is flawless. Miss Americana falters at points by stumbling a little too far into self-congratulations. Swift’s grand achievement as framed by the narrative of the documentary is her single “You Need to Calm Down” off of her 2019 record Lover, a song and music video campaigning for equal rights for queer individuals - a message that isn’t that profound anymore. Or I could discuss the flat visual style. The camera work and editing are basic which creates a lack of distinctive visual style.

But the film has such a strong heart and core and so these complaints feel like simple, stupid gripes. Swift is trying to understand herself better and the world she operates in. Sure, it’s an imperfect documentary, but there is too much good in it not to discuss it.

I have a deeper respect for Taylor Swift coming out of this film. Swift isn't the person elementary school-aged boys made her out to be. She’s a woman with incredible talent and ambition. She has struggled relentlessly for all she has achieved and that is something to be admired. I wish her all of the best in whatever comes next. I hope the age of 35 isn't the end of her career.

Miss Americana is now streaming on Netflix.

Score: 3.5


Miss Americana Quick Facts
Directed by Lana Wilson
Starring Taylor Swift
Released January 31, 2020 [Netflix]