December 30, 2025 • 48 mins
This summer we are curating your Lowbrow podcast playlist bringing you the insanely popular and always funny - brutally honest reviews from our friends on The Spill. Enjoy!
Whether you snagged a ticket to see Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl in cinemas last weekend, or missed out and need the rundown — we’ve got you covered.
Strap in for our brutally honest review of Taylor’s latest cinematic spectacle. From the hidden meanings behind her new songs to the making of the music video we can’t stop jamming out to, we’re breaking down every glittering detail (and a few things you might’ve missed).
Joining us for the ride is Mamamia’s Pop Culture & Social Editor — and, honestly, the biggest Swiftie we’ve ever known — to help decode the Easter eggs, unpack this new era, and explain what this film tells us about Taylor’s ever-evolving showgirl persona.
Whether you’ve already seen it and want to unpack it all, or you haven’t and just want to know what all the hype’s about, this episode is your all-access pass to the Showgirl era.
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A brutally honest review of Taylor Swift's new movie
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Hosts: Laura Brodnik and Em Vernem
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
So you're listening to a Muma Mia podcast. Mama Mea
acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that this
podcast is recorded on Hi. It's Laura Brodnick here, host
of our pop culture and entertainment podcast, The Spill, and
this summer we're curating your lowbrow playlist, bringing you our
brutally honest reviews from the top TV shows of the year,
(00:31):
to the biggest movies of twenty twenty five, and some
of the classics that shaped us. Every episode is giving
you the Spills, completely unfiltered and real takes. So your
summer listening is sorted. And if you're looking for more
to listen to, every Mumma Mea podcast is curating your
summer listening right across our network. From pop culture to
(00:52):
beauty to powerful interviews, there is something for everyone. Just
follow the link in our show notes from Mamma Mia.
Welcome to The Spill, your daily pop culture fix. I'm
Laura Brodnick and I'm Tina Ye, Mommy's pop culture and
social editor and a resonant Taylor Swift expert. Very true
(01:14):
as we have learned, So we're here today for a
brutally honest review of Taylor Swift's new movie Now, it
came into our lives for a brief but interesting moment
one weekend, and Tina and I went to the cinema
to see it together, which we'll get into that in
a second, and so we thought we'd bring you a
brilli honest review. Now, if you've listened to our episode
(01:35):
earlier in the week about all the secrets of Taylor
Swift's new album, that was a bit more technical. It
was about the lyrics, it was about what people were
saying about everyone involved. The movie is its own beast,
it's its own entry into the Taylor Swift universe. And
so we're going to be going through that now. If
you haven't seen it, that's fine. We can't spoil anything.
(01:55):
There's literally nothing to spoil. But if you wann't one
of the people who got a chance to see on
the weekend, we're about to tell you everything that unfolded
and all the drama that has come off the side
of it, all the tea, all the moments you might
have missed, yes, etc. So the movie came out, as
I said, for just one weekend. It was called the
official release party of a Showgirl, and Taylor's have basically
(02:17):
said it was going to be the music video for
the Fate of Ophelia, which is the first single from
the new album, and a bit of behind the scenes
of how she made the music video, and it was
going to be the lyric videos for the rest of
the eleven tracks. And boy was she not lying, because
that is exactly what it was. And I think a
lot of Stifties went into it knowing they would be
just watching the lyrics go across the screen. Yeah, so
(02:38):
they were okay with that. It went on to be
number one at the North American box office and made
thirty three million dollars in just one weekend, and then
also went on to make millions of dollars and also
be number one across many other countries and cinema chains
in the world. So it was a very lucrative weekend
for Miss Swift. It was a big deal. Like everyone
(02:58):
who's anyone at the premiere of a showgirl or whatever
she called it. I liked this title is party, you
come on, you call yourselfice. We just make up whatever
it comes to this title, because it's just about words,
isn't it. So long as you say show girl, you
kind of get something close to it. But it was
a big cinematic event. We were all very excited. You
maybe less so. Well you were coming anyway, I was there.
(03:19):
I went for work purposes because I very much I
really value our audience. I'm not even lying now. I'm
as such a cynical person. I have a heart of
stone and no feelings except for ficure. When I described
what this was to you, like what this cinematic event
was like, I was already like, I'm a huge fan.
I don't know that I need to go see this thing.
So you were not interested at all, and that's understandable.
I said, not only do you have to go because
(03:40):
it's your job, you have to go with me. Yeah,
and there's nothing like a work colleague inviting themselves along
to hang out with you on a Saturday. Yeah, which
is what we did. Which is what we did. So
some cinemas were here's a thing. There was a different
experience depending on where you went some cinema, what time
of day. Because this thing kicked off at like five am.
I know some people were floating the idea like should
you when I go to five am screening? So we
get our coverage up early, and I said, I love
(04:02):
The Spillers so much. I went to the cinema just
to see the movie, just so I could talk about
on this podcast. That's what I did, and I have
no complains about that. But I was in no way
in hell going at five am on a Saturday. So
we went at twelve, which was twelve which is still
pretty early for me. I arrived blurry eyed to the cinema. Also,
like you guys have seen Laura, right, Like you guys
know Laura is. She's always got like a bold lip,
(04:25):
she's always got her hair done like perfectly, not any videos.
I don't outfit steamed, and like I'm there in like
I don't know what I thought I was leading to
where you should have seen her, Oh, you looked phenomenal.
But that's her point, Like God knows what I was
wearying something an outfit for sure, clothes absolutely absolutely, Otherwise
that would have been a very different story. And Laura
(04:45):
and I like, right, it's a morning. I mean it's lunchtime.
But we're like, that's not a popcorn and coke time,
it's not a wine time. This is the am for us.
I mean, I definitely would have gone on wine. But
I had to go and write marriage, but you had
to do it. You had to do some thinking also,
just to set the scene. On the Friday when the
album drops, I'm really excited. Obviously I'm still working, but
I'm trying to listen. You decided to go in with Yes.
I made a journalistic decision, is what I'm calling it.
(05:07):
So Friday the album comes out, huge ripple of excitement
across the world. People lose their minds, including Tina Mary
Burke over here, who John I might use that for
my passwords. I don't try to change those. That's terrible.
Security loses their mind And at that point, you and
I double checking what time we should meet the cinema
(05:27):
and tomorrow, how much time will need for coffee, et cetera,
et cetera, And I said, hey, in the interest of
journalistic integrity and making sure that we attack this new
Taylor Swift movie from every side, why don't you go
in having listened to the album multiple, multiple, multiple times,
which you did, and knowing all the background and knowing
all the lord, knowing the fans were saying, you're in
fifty group chats and everyone was talking about it. You
(05:49):
sat up all might. I didsten to it, and you
had a frantic energy. The next day I did, and
then I went into it not hearing any of the songs.
I didn't look at any of the information online. I've
read no reviews, I read no discourse. So I went
into it completely blind, and it saved my life. Yeah,
and so we go in with really different experiences, which
we will obviously get to. Sorry I sidetracked us, but
(06:10):
point bing, I'm in a Taylor Swift frenzy. It's the
am for us. We go, let's meet, we'll get a coffee,
we'll get a breakfast treat. Laura Brodneck as always, thinks
she's going to be on time. Isn't not her fault,
as UBA's fault. She was a bit my fault. But
Laura comes running into the coffee shop, literally running midday
in like a full face silk skirt, like a classic
(06:33):
Laura ensemble, and I'm in like a pajama tole. Yeah,
well it was casual for you. I'm in like a
pajama top and a striped skirt. That's what I was wearing.
And like I think I was wearing tevas or like
a sneak but like I was looking very cinema casual.
Laura was ready for the premiere, as she should be,
because you need to say there was if there was
an a strange premiere. We didn't get invited, No, we didn't.
We bought the ticket, treated it like it was one. Well,
(06:54):
I don't know about that, but we had to go
by our own coffee, which we're not accustomed to. Can
you say, I have not been to the cinema and
bought a ticket for six or seven years, so I
had to do it. I know you haven't. I know,
That's why I made you buy a tickets. It was like,
how does one procure a movie ticket? And then we
went in and there was ads, and I like, what
is this? But we went in, we got a sweet treat,
we got our coffees, We sat down and I didn't
(07:14):
know what it was going to be about. But as
I said, I'm so glad I hadn't listened to the album.
This wouldn't have been for everyone, but it was the
right decision for me because I was seeing all the
songs for the first time as they played on screen,
which is basically it's what a ninety minute movie? Yeah,
and I'm going to say, about fifty five of those
minutes were just videos with lyrics going across the screen.
(07:38):
And I found that interesting because I was seeing everything
for the first time. If I'd already listened to it,
I would have been like, you get me out of here,
because why if I'd listened to it at home times,
I could watch the text on my own screen with
the Spotify thing where it shows you to text. Yeah,
why am I paying like thirty dollars for a movie
ticket to watch it on screen? No, that's so valid.
But also a lot of the cinemas were like sing
(08:00):
along party vibes. Yeah, so that's the vibe, right, It's
supposed to be like, gather all your friends, go to
the movies. You'll see and we'll talk about what else
was in there. But yeah, every single song. And I
actually turned to Laura at one point I was like,
Dragon is every song? And she was like, yes, Tina,
that is famous what this movie Isfore I was like, Fuck,
it's interesting what you're saying about people dressing up and
(08:21):
people singing along because in my city, no, no, not
our cinema, which I feel like you can probably pick
the one. We went to a tiny cinema and I
won't dock to you because it's next ye. Please, don't
you already gave away my middle name. If anyone, like
anyone else, will like Tina's personal details, just DM me
and I'll give you them. I'll give them to you. Yes,
we went to a really small cinema on a Saturday,
(08:42):
early morning, twelve o'clock. I'm sure there were cinemas well.
I saw them online. I saw cinemas where they were
actually packed. And that is what I really defended this
movie over, because, as I said, once we finished the movie,
I raced home and I wrote a review and I
put it up on which we'll link in the show notes,
and put it up lines that we could have something
out because only out for two days, so the time
was of the essence. And there were a lot of
(09:03):
really scathing reviews about the movie from many like very
prestigious outlets and from many outlets across the world, calling
it greedy, cash grab, calling it useirs, calling it to
service to fans, And in my review I kind of said,
like a little bit, that's missed the point, because yes,
at the end of the day, Tailor Sift put this
movie out to make extra money and for extra promotion. However,
(09:27):
it was really honest about what it was though. Yeah,
it's product and demand, Like there was demand for this product,
which is why she put it out because what we
saw at cinemas across the world was people putting on
their tailor shift outfits, dusting off their erras to her
outfits in many senses, putting on their friendship bracelets, going
to the cinema wanting to recreate the unity and excitement
that they fell to the Errors tour, which for so
(09:49):
many people was such an important, beautiful moment, and it was.
There's so many clips from cinemas of like young girls dancing,
lots of like older girls having a wine watching the show,
so like, very different experience depending. But you and I
coffee in hand, had that. But that's morning fun for
me and some tweets in the front road with a
torch on, and I was this go to boomerang it
(10:10):
and going downstairs to the kids, and you weren't going
to a fight with some tweems. I would have just
lost it. That would have been the perfect cinema. It's
decorum these days, guys. Come on, If I was a kid,
I would have been terrified to make a mistake in
the cinema. It's pretty empty where we were. Yeah, but
when I saw those clips of like, yeah, people singing
in the cinema and people passing friendship bracelets back when
(10:30):
people made outfits, like people were making full show girl outfits,
And I was like, at the end of the day,
tell us his biggest strength has always been, like, she's
really good at creating an event where you feel very
special to be part of it. And she's very good
at creating community for all different ages. And that's all
people want at the moment. They want to go somewhere
dressed up and make friends. You just want to have
a good time, and like whatever, if you've got thirty
(10:52):
bucks to spend and that's what you want to spend
it on, go for gold. Yeah, exactly. So I'm still
trying to get a plan. Actually, if enough Spiller is DM,
maybe she'll do it. I kind of want Laura to
come to my house and watch the errors too. I'll
go to her house. But she never watched the Aras
Tour film. Because you're too. You should watch the film too,
because it's so much fun recreate the magic. I don't
know if anyone wants a brutally honest review of their
errors to it. No, they don't need that. I need
(11:13):
a person, Okay, So I just want the spillers to
harass you into being my friend. That's what I must
tell them that they're in duressing, harassing, and dms every day.
But what I wanted to just quickly circle back into
before we get into the magic of this movie film
is how it obviously worked as a huge marketing strategy,
which is what it was there for. I don't think
that was hidden for anyone around. How it made the
album release more of an event. It made people be
(11:35):
excited to Like at the beginning of the movie, Taylor sists,
I hope you sing along, so she's inferring that I
hope you've streamed this or listen to your vinyl many
times before you come to the cinema. And what I
was really interested in this whole rollout of the Life
of a Showgirl is how much press Taylor Swift did
when she went on New Heights. Everyone's like, I can't
believe she did a podcast, and I say, wallh, she
(11:56):
did her film says podcast. It's very different. But I
was kind of expecting that that would nearly be it,
and then she went on so many different talk shows.
She went on so many radio shows. She gave more
interviews in like a week long period then she's given
in over five years. Was like kind of what I
talied up looking at it. And why I thought that
was interesting is that for so many years the story
(12:17):
has been Taylor Swift doesn't need press, she doesn't need interviews.
She's the one celebrity who has so much power that
she doesn't need to sit for magazine profiles, and she
doesn't have to do the radio interview circuit like we
saw her doing. She doesn't have to go sit in
a talk show bench and like or play a game.
She doesn't have to eat a spicy wing or pretend
to go on a date with someone like. She's moved
(12:39):
beyond traditional press and that was always the big thing
about her. And we could see from the moment she
was doing the countdown on her socials and dropping all
the eastreags, the whole world was watching her. She didn't
need to do any press, So why did she do it?
Can you answer that for me? No? I actually can't. Okay,
we gonna say yes because we had talked about this
(13:00):
previously and you said you could answer it. I mean,
I think there's obvious parts of it. This is the
amount of press that she's done previously, say like before reputation,
this the amount of pressure would be doing. Oh yeah,
I mean like we've seen her do this before, but
not not not since then. And I honestly was surprised
by the radio the late night shows. Yeah, expected because
(13:22):
like she's got a friendly relationship and relationships very they're
very fun, they're very good for radio circuit. Really, the
radio circuit shocked me because this is pop star Taylor Swift,
this is superstar Taylor Swift, and she's on the radio
answering your name questions about like do you think you'd
ever go to space? Like my guy, I do love
that because she had the same reaction when I get
asked if I'm gonna go to space, because that is
(13:42):
a big fear I've talked about on this podcast before
and absolutely not, absolutely I going to space. My favorite
thing was that her reasoning was like, no one would
believe I went, They'd think it was AI, so why
would I? And she also was like it's cold, it's weird,
it's waste. What are we doing? But it's very surprising
to me that she did the radio circuit that I
did not expect. I think it comes in parcel with
why we know she's doing this rollout of like the
(14:03):
big talk shows, is that she's seeing this album as
like her next Grammy winner, her next big award season winner,
And so it's like that's her big plan when she
does those rollouts, is to be more present and to
be more involved in that marketing and in the talk
shows and make sure that she's like front and center
in everyone's minds. And it's also something I think that
she's doing now because maybe she just feels like a
(14:23):
bit more at ease, Like there was a long period
of time Folklore and evermore was obviously like during COVID
she had just come off the back of Rep and Lover,
she was still treading quite carefully. The error's tool like
really reinstated her as that mega star that people were
obsessed with. And I think that now that she feels
(14:44):
happier and more confident in who she is, she's willing
to kind of go back and do those things that
are more traditional and put herself out there and show
that she's like quote unquote fun yeah, Like, I think
that's what she wants. What I love about her is
that she'll make like a quip or a joke on
a talk show and no one reacts because they don't
really understand. Yeah, like is that a joke? What's she's saying?
And so like have you see it in the behind
(15:04):
the scenes of Miss America And she makes a lot
of quips and jokes to her team and no one
reacts to her because I think people just look at
her and they're like, she's wrapped in like this weird
protective bubble rapp. Yeah, And so I think she wants
people to see her as fun. She wants people to
see her as like a cool, fun show girly girl. Yeah,
she's gonna win a couple Grammys. I mean, who knows
now with the reaction to the album roll out, but
I think that's her big plan. She wanted this to
(15:24):
feel huge. But it surprised me because I thought that
this movie was supposed to be like the Secret Sessions thing,
where this would be the place where she revealed stop
and yet she's on radio going this is my favorite song,
this is my favorite thing. So it kind of did
make the movie thing feel a little less special when
she's saying the exact same stuff, if not more, also
on radio. That is so true. I hadn't even thought
(15:45):
about that, because the promise of the movie was to
fans like, you're going to see things before anyone else.
You're going to see the video clip, which I guess
you did. You saw the video clip before other people.
And she was like, I'm going to tell you exactly
why I wrote each song and what I was thinking,
and you won't get there anywhere else except for the
fifteen radio interviews I'm going to do first. Yeah, it's interesting.
I kind of do agree what you're saying that it
was half an award show ploy, like she's essentially starting
(16:07):
her campaign campaign because don't matter how many people love you,
like the Grammy's notoriously a bit dirty with the way
they operate, but they're also notoriously are not going to
be completely swayed by fame. And what we've kind of
picked up from tailors over the years is that no
matter how many tickets sales she has or records she breaks,
she's still very much craves the validation of her industry
and things like the Grammys. So it was half an
(16:29):
award show campaign rollout, and I think what else you're
saying is true too. It was also half of a
personal branding exercise to make her feel less elusive, less godlike,
more like in every Woman. She was bringing little packages
of baked bread to the different radio hosts and she
was talking about like cute little things, and she was
showing her for engaging and she was chatting. She just
(16:49):
looked like, I'm I'm not saying that was an act,
but when you're Taylor Swift, you can't go anywhere without
thinking about how am I going to present myself because
millions upon millions of people are going to dissect this
ten minute interview. And it was jarring. Not in a
bad way. I have no qualms what she does or
does not do with her life, but like it was
a bit jarring compared to what we've seen to have
her there flashing the ring going like, oh, yeah, the
(17:12):
wedding's going to be then then I'm going to do this,
like yeah, yeah, Graham Norton, you can come. It's going
to be a big affair. Like I know that she
behaved that way like you said on New Heights, but
that's literally his podcast. Yeah, that's that's her family, that's
her family. It was very strange to see it so
candidly the way she once upon a time was when
we haven't had that for a very long time, she
very much became Taylors with the brand, Taylor's with trademark,
(17:33):
like that's who she's been for a long time. And
even if she lets her personality out and even if
she shines through, she's still that person presenting all the time.
And you saw it at the Era's tour, even in
the fact that a lot of what she said was rehearsed,
there was very rarely an off the cuff moment said
on tour. It was all very like by the minute,
exact same thing said every single night. Yeah, one hundred percent,
And there's nothing wrong with that, but it's part of
(17:54):
that thing that she's been so careful about. So it
was weird a little bit to be like, what do
you mean you're talking about like your wedding. Yeah, it
was even telling us starring in an interesting way. So
the personal branding is what brings us to the movie.
So at the top of the movie, she talks about
wanting to give fans a sneak peek encourages people to
see along yes with ror grievance. Yeah. Absolutely. The top
(18:15):
of the movie is an ad for Target USA where
you can buy an exclusive vinyl of Taylor Swift's album
at Target. Just take it out like, oh yeah for
an audience, because that wasn't that's the case her. Yeah,
that annoyed me. It just really frustrated me because I
was like, again, it was a choice, we chose to go.
I have lots of positive memories of Saturday that old
(18:36):
Cherish forever and I had a good time. But if
you're going to make people come and pay money to
see this thing that you've done that is generic and
is across every audience, can you at least change the
American ad from the start of the video. It's a
very fun ad, it's very show girl. We can't buy it,
so can you just take it out? And can you
just do an intro like, Hey, Australia and New Zealand,
(18:57):
head to my website. Do anything that makes it feel
like we didn't just get a weird DVD from America
and like my mum pressed play like an illegal, pirated copy.
That's kind of how that made it feel such it
was weird. It's such a fair grievance that I hope
she takes off. Thank you, But then it introduces Taylor
and she doesn't intro It introduces Taylor and we get
into the movie. What is really interesting in this movie
(19:19):
is that it is as much as it's marketing for
the album, it's also coming off what you're saying about
her interviews, a huge exercise in public branding and making
her look like everyone's best friend, but also a creative force,
which we already thought of. But it starts off with
the making of the Fate of Ophelia music video, which
(19:39):
is a thread that goes all the way through. We
see the music video, which was sickeningly good, Like what
did you love about it? I think this is the
see we see the video. Really, she's ever made, the
best music video she's ever made. I think, so why
I'm not just agree with you, I'm just so interesting
because I know that you watch all of them so intently,
so that really means a lot. And I do think
so you get to see it twice, you get bad,
(20:03):
you do, but I did enjoy seeing it, and then
obviously they talk through it, so maybe that's also part
of why I thought it was so much better. So
if you haven't seen it yet, a lot of the
segments are one shot takes, which is a very hard
thing to do, and you need to practice and you
need to rehearse a lot, but what it usually delivers
is like something very beautiful. And she had set all
of hers in different ARTSI worlds. So first section, she's
(20:26):
recreating the painting of Ophelia, and then she you know,
comes out of the painting, and then it turns into
her going into another painting and there's all these moving
parts around her, and then she sort of progresses through
various stages of showgirls, which you learn from the film
is that she wanted the music video to showcase all
of the different ways that a showgirl may peep. And
then like she's a tenuous link because she kind of
(20:47):
calls Ophelia a showgirl, but she's like in the sense
that she was in a painting and you're like, all right,
like fiantistic purposes will go with her and say yes,
But she sort of goes through, you know, like girls
who dance in the kickout clubs. She goes through like
the girls who did like the water performances in their
viduled swimsuits, and like she does like herself at the
(21:07):
end of each night of the Eras tour, so she's
like a show girl would have looked like through various
phases in time. There's a moment where she has like
a Marilyn moment with the blonde wig and like the corset.
I just thought that it was a very stunning and
well choreographed routine from the start to finish. And she
had all of her Errors Tour dancers, she had her band,
she had all of these different people popping up. So
(21:28):
that was also fun because if someone popped up on
the screen, I was like, Oh, it's Cam, or like
oh it's this person, or hey, that's her guitar. Her
whole entire come to because she really set up the
Errors tour. She always said like we welcome you to
the Eras too. Well, we are so excited you're here.
At the end of the Eras tour, you see the
faces and names of all the dances and band flush ups.
So she was always trying to make it look like
a community. And I think that's a little nod to
(21:49):
fans from the RAS tours, like here's all the dances
you loved dancing next to me, and they all get
to have a little part. This making of the music
video was my favorite part of this movie. I could
have watched just ninety interesting. I sound it so interesting
how she's explaining the setup. We're behind the scenes on
all of these different shots. And this is when you
see two parts of Taylor Swift. And because you only
(22:12):
really see like maybe half an hour of footage, maybe
not even that, twenty minutes of footage of the behind
the scenes making of and they were doing it for
such a long time. I'm always really interesting of which
pieces someone like Taylor Swift, who is in charge of everything,
which pieces she picks to show. And she shows a
lot of scenes of her really explaining because she directed
and wrote the music video and came up and the
(22:34):
song and she basically she did everything and she really
wants that to come across the audience. There's a lot
of different shots of her explaining in very intense detail
what her vision is where people need to be. You
see her collaborating with people like Mandy Moore, who's like
a very famous choreographer choreographer, but it's not to make
confused with Mandy Moore. The actress. No, she wasn't there
that day as far as we know, and so we
(22:57):
see her really sharing her vision and going back and
forth and all these sorts of things, and we also
see her being like, not take charge, but it's very
clear that she is in charge. And she's saying like, oh,
she's like, we'll go again. Yeah, she said, were going
to again. We didn't get it go again this way.
And then she's also saying to everyone, we have to
get it in one shop. It has to be one shot.
We cannot find it in the edit. We have to
get it now, all these different things, and you see
(23:18):
her really giving that intense feedback and also being like,
they shoot it, and everyone's like, they shoot one of
the final shots from they're in the room partying, and
she looks at them monitor and straight away she's like, no,
I know you guys think that was good, but it
needs to be demer, that's not right. We go again.
And also interestingly watching all the dancers do all these
very specific moves. It's such a dance heavy video. There's
(23:40):
so much precision in like the movement of like this
person comes across the corridor and this person throws a
football to tailor and then she throws it back and
this person jumps into the ocean and all this sort
of stuff, And it's really interesting that none of the
music plays during that. They do that whole sequence with
the entire video off clicks. It is surprising to me
that she even sings, because in parts of it she
(24:02):
was she was seeing. That was weird because the whole
wee never does And I think it's the fact that
she does trust the errors to our team that month
that explicitly not enough to play the song, not enough
to fully play the song. But she also if you
watch the behind the scenes of like the Me music video,
it's just the clicks, so they're dancing and let me
audio it for you guys, it's literally just like and
you're like, wow, that was great. I can't believe we
(24:23):
just danced to that track. Yeah, because her music is
under such locking key that even with her most trusted
team members, she can't play the She's even saying the
lyrics out loud, which is like, shows how much she
does actually trust them. But it is strange, so like
they have all just worked together for so long now
and it was nice to see her bring them back,
but it was kind of weird, And I think the
point you've sort of made about her directing, I do
want to say that, like it was all very like
(24:45):
I want to do the best I can do, is
how it all came across. Not that she ever thought
someone else didn't do a good enough job. It was
always like I can do that better. Yeah, I know
I can nail that better. I know that I can
do this better. The one was the lighting one in
the final scene, but otherwise she was like, no, let
me try one more time. I'm gonna do one more
and I'm just gonna fall at the right time off
this ship. I'm just gonna walk down the steps at
(25:06):
this exact right time. And like, I do think she
takes that very so seriously. Yeah, in that she has
been criticized for not being a good enough dancer or
not being like cool enough, or not having like enough
stage presence. So I think that's something she tries to
really she wants you to know how hard she worked. Yeah, exactly.
And I think maybe this is also her like decades
early run at an oscars. Yeah, because she does want
(25:29):
to get into directing. She's said it before. I think
she really wants an Oscar. She's come very close. So
all two l music video was potentially in the running
for Best Short Film for the Oscars. It didn't make
it through to like the final long list. But also
she had a slam dunk almost with Cats Is that
she she did everything right, a big screen adaptation of
a classic Broadway musical. She co wrote a song with
(25:50):
Andrew Lloyd Webber that was critically acclaimed. In any other
world except that people hated Cats so much. In any
other world, she would have at least got an Oscar nomination,
And that is why she was out promoing and doing
all the red carpets and things for Cats. Is She
was like, very soon, I'm going to be at the Oscars,
and I'm potentially gonna win my first which is the
thing that you can tell she really wants. Yeah, so
(26:13):
I think she does. So and Andrew Lord Webber let
her down, I know, but she wants that director lifestyle.
So like, I think this is her showing off her
skill set for sure, and like making it clear to
all of us that this is her her skill and
making it clear that she's just one of the gang.
That was the other thing that I thought she went
to great great pains, and I understand why the tiniest
little just hint that Taylor Swift treated anyone badly on
(26:36):
that set, that she was in any way difficult, that
she in any way said anything to anyone that made
them upset, would just ruin her in a way that
it wouldn't so much with other celebrities, because she has
cultivated this, not to her enemies, but to her in
a circle who there's so many stories come out about
how well she treats her band and Luly she doesn't.
But I'm just saying, like, we get a lot of
(26:56):
information around that, because it's very clear that her team
want us to know that she treats her dance as well.
She treats her band members well, she keeps people with
her for a long time, she gives bonuses to people,
She's very collaborative, And there was a lot of clips
that would deliberately showing and put in there to show
her being like one of the gals on the set.
Like when someone's like, oh, we could have your bread
(27:17):
in the music video, and because she's been baking this
out door and she gets sold, she's like my bread
in the video. Really, could you think that could happen.
Do you think it could happen? Do you think it happened?
I'm like, girl, you're the boss. You can do whatever
you want. Why are you going and asking everyone on
the room if your bread's allowed to be in there?
And then acting like this miracle has occurred. She was like,
my god, my bread is going to be in a
music video. I was like, you're in your laughing video
(27:37):
and you're directed. You can literally put anything you want
in there. I don't mean that to be nickpicky. I
don't mean it to be that. I know that's not
a really mean girl. I just I just meant like,
I know what you mean. Yeah. The bits that she
chooses to show, and there's all these moments where she
kind of walks in and I'm sure she meant it too,
and she's being like, she'll go into every dancer and
be like, you look beautiful, you look beautiful, you look beautiful.
You'll that you nailed it, you nailed, you nailed It's
so good, it's so good, it's so good. I'm not
(27:59):
saying she doesn't talk like that, but I do think
she has to go above and beyond so that there's
no question, because there would be a question if she
didn't do it. Oh, absolutely, yeah, she can't do that.
She can't like have a normal casual work acquaintance. No, no,
she can't come in and be like I've had the
longest day and I told you put that light there.
You didn't put it there, and which would be very fair,
(28:20):
a very fair reaction to have. But when you Taylor Swift,
you've got to be on the whole time. Yeah, and
we saw it, We did see it. And I think
like they spent two years together on that stage every
other day, and like she really on the tour, and
then now in this music video, has tried to make
it very clear that like she sees them as like
her friends and family. Yeah, like that last one's the
show once. Now that this video is done, who knows,
(28:40):
but like it's still nice to see them all together
and see that like she is going out of her
way to at least try to Like I wonder how
much they got for the music video. Yeah, well quite
a lot, I'm sure, because she does pay very high.
Oh my god, and she was tipping them all like
here's one hundred K, Like, yeah, I love that when
you're making that much money too, it's all relative as well.
It seems like a lot to ask, but for her, yeah,
pretty to be a backup dancer for Taylor Swift, get
(29:02):
a dollar or two, have some fun, some fun vibes.
So the most of the movie is is we see
the video play, not once but twice. The pharophilia start
at the end. Yeah, we see at the start, we
see the end. We see snippets throughout the movie that
is the making of the video clip, and then the
rest of the movie is made up of the lyric
(29:24):
video of every song on the Life of a Show
Go album with a little intro from Taylor sif now
because everything's so set up. The way that she chose
to do those intros I thought was very interesting. She's
seeing a director's chair because she's the director. She's wearing
red and she's got a matching red lip and she's
got a hair tied back and like a messy, messy pony,
(29:45):
messy pony, a very like curly fringe like hair do.
I'm sure took hours, but it's also meant to look like, Yeah,
she's got a red lip on, but she's not overly
done up. She's a working girl. She's got like boots
and socks on, and she's looking very like she's about
to spring into directing action. And it's also meant to
very visually beautiful because it's Taylor Swift, so her red
(30:06):
lip matches her red top. And also there's a set
behind her which is a big floor to ceiling painting
which was yeah, and set with the red in it
that matches her top and lipstick. So it's all really beautiful.
But then we see the set has been just nudged
over tire a little bit, and so you can see
behind the scenes onto the real set, which looks like
(30:26):
behind the scenes of a theater, very messy, very chaotic,
very creative. So it's meant to like show you that
whole setup of where she's doing the intros. It's meant
to show you you've come into this beautiful world that
she's creative. But you're on the set with her, so
you're in the midst of the chaos. Yeah, you're in
the director's share. Yeah, you're in with her, and you're
getting betting the hot takes and the special takes. And
(30:47):
then she talks for forty five seconds about each song. Okay,
let's go through lyric video we go through the intros
for all the different songs. What I did love about
the Fate of Ophelia intro, Like everyone makes fun of
the whole, like because Taylor's we've called herself that English
teacher in that one post when she got engaged, and
like it's kind of a joke off, like people have
said in the past, especially with like folklore evermore and
(31:08):
talk of poets that like she waffles too lyrical, like
too poetic, whatever. She kind of makes a bit of
a joke of that. But I think there's a lot
of chatter online about how people expected the Fate of
Ophelia song to actually be more rooted in the Shakespeare story,
and it's like that's obviously not she was going to
relate it to herself. That's not what she was going
to do. But the introduction is quite funny to the
song because she talks about how she's like, oh, like
(31:31):
it's just like I get so attached to these Shakespeare characters.
I love Shakespeare, and I'm like, okay, I don't, but
good for you. No, we all don't like Shakespeare. We
love Shakespeare. But that's the way to say everywhere you
know who does. But she acknowledges that she acknowledges that
she goes, I know, what a wild thing to say
about Shakespeare. That's what I mean. It's kind of funny,
like she's like whatever, but then she's like, every time
(31:51):
one of them dies, I get so sad. Yeah, well
it is famously called a tragedy tale. Yeah, like you
are meant to be sad. Correct, She's a stute and
so what she kind of does is try to be like,
I am just gonna like maybe save Ophelia from this
sad fate. But it's not really about that. But she
makes a joke of like the Romeo and Juliet song,
like she's like, I try to save these women from
(32:11):
their fate. And I'm like, yeah, she's like, I do
that thing I do where I look at Shakespeare and
she is and Shakespeare actually holds up, and I'm like,
I know that's it to sound dumb, but she's correct.
Shakespeare does hold up in a way that a lot
of other literature from that time period, all the decades
that followed it still inspire an adaptation. And again it's
(32:31):
I know, it's a wild thing to say Shakespeare good,
but she said it. She went out and she went
she's not afraid to say controversial things. She's not and like,
you know what, good But the intro is quite funny
because she is like Shakespeare holds up and you know,
I like to save these characters from tragedy because I
get really sad when they die. Yeah, she's like, I
love to say. Look, She's like, I love to look
at Shakespeare's stories and say, but what if they got together?
(32:53):
And also what it comes to me and what it
Then it cuts to the song You're like, fair enough,
fair enough, Taylor and I don't understand. So we had that.
That was quite funny, and also I just enjoyed it
because so many people have been like, this song's not
shakespeare enough, and it's like she's just inserting herself in
the story and you loved it when she did it
film Love Story, she was taking herself from the idea
of a feliure in paintings and through artists interpretations rather
(33:15):
than a Felia's full story from the play. Is what
I took from. Famously, I don't think Taylor Swif's boyfriends
have murdered her father. Yeah, that went off. Stay changed
For the next album, we learned what Opalite was I'm
gonna say I didn't know what opel it was. Apparently
she got it wrong too, so I don't know. This
is what I'm sure Just so you know, I'm getting
all my opolite information from Taylor Smith too, so it
(33:35):
can't be wrong me too. So yeah, she explained what
oplite was, which was like man made opal I want
to say, yeah, and then it's like the stone for
Travis Kelsey's birth mom. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and she
louded those incorrect. Well, apparently there's something to do with
it being man made. Is it's not exactly the same
as like man made diamonds and stuff. I mean, I
feel like people got to be technical on the fake rocks.
(33:57):
All she said was that she and her mum. It's
so funny because this is where the press and the
movie were butting heads because people were saying, well, in
the interviews she said that opal was linked to Travis
Kelcey and in the movie, she said Opal's are a
special thing that she and her mum shared. One of
us she has one of the many things we share together,
and Opalite is the idea of making your own luck
(34:18):
and making your own happy. Ending Yeah, and people got
upset about that, and I was like, I do think
what you're saying is true. It's probably just both. It's
probably just both, but it was. Yeah. That was the
vibe of what she said about Opalite was that it
was like taking something man made and making it for yourself.
And that's how she feels about the romance with Travis Kelson,
that they had the opportunity to create something and she's
never made anything. I think the line is like, I've
never made anything as beautiful as this, or Opelite is
(34:40):
my favorite song. Yeah, that's a controversial take. Some people
hate song, but like she does all these o's that
sound Christmas y and there's like a jangly bell. It's
kind of like when Little Mix released that like love
Me Like You, and it just sounds like a Christmas
song even though it's not. That's how I feel about Opalite.
And she also just says that she writes down words
that she thinks are interesting when she hears them. So
(35:01):
she wrote down Opalite and then she just works it
into a song, yeah, which doesn't sound groundbreaking, but I
just love that she's got a notes out for Yeah.
She said a couple times she was like I've got
a long list in my phone that I just scroll
through and then someone has a beat or a melody
that suits, and then all one of the words, how
that could fit? Man, I love to see that note.
That's just so creative. What's in her? But she was
funny because she was like some of its trash. Yeah,
(35:23):
that it is everyone's ideas like that. So she goes
through the different intros to song. The one that gets
the biggest laugh in our cinema with the six people
who are in there, but also I've seen other cinemas
that are packed. Yeah, the one that gets the biggest
laugh is the introduction to Wood. Would you like to
tell people what she said there? Well, Wood is the
song about Travis Kelsey's penis. Yea, and oh it's not
(35:43):
just about that, it's about how sexy times are. And
she introduces that song as like it's all about superstitious. Yeah,
she's like stepping on her crack knocking on wood, Like
she just does it in this really silly, nonchalant tailor way,
but where she can't be that joky, and so she's
got this like silly little grin on her face. That's
the thing is that the movie was like a G
(36:05):
rated movie because I think she was so aware that
she has a young fan base, and we saw heaps
of kids being taken to the cinema by their parents.
And so when she's talking about wood, she's like, it's
about black cats and stepping on cracks and things like that,
and she just stops, looks at the camera and everyone
laughs because they're like, hah, it's about penises. Yeah. And
then but also Laura hasn't heard the songs at this point. No,
so then in the cinema it was all the clean
(36:27):
versions and all that. Yeah, that's interesting, isn't it. As
all the songs come on, I'm like whispering to Laura
and telling her what it is. And then yeah, I
want to have this sounded to people behind it, because
across the screen it comes up that was the key
that opened my skies, and I did know some part
of me knew that was not the right lyrics. And
then new lean over really loud and go the real
lyric is the key that opened my thighs. It was
(36:49):
a few times and I was like, I get it,
I get it. I'm listening to the clean version. So
that got a big laugh and then the women next
to me were having a great time because I was
having to tell you everything. They really enjoyed what we
sp Oh, yeah, that was a whispers and they always
spring too, like everyone was having a little chatter. Well
it was, I mean it's not there's I hate talking
(37:10):
in movies, as you know. Don't talk to me, don't
talk to anyone else, don't look at your phone, which
I didn't do. I think you're in the movies dead
silence except for laughter and maybe a gasp if you're
a scaredy cat. It's fine and tells the movie because
that was designed for people to talk and clap and
sing along, and it was a lot of just lyrics
on the screen. So what else are you gonna do? Yes,
going into the actually romantic that was probably one of
(37:32):
the longest intros. Yeah, and she really goes to town in that. Yeah.
So that is the introduction to the song that is
believed to be about Charlie XCX and the relationship that
they have. Yes, and she sort of introduces the song
as like being about when you don't even realize that
you were a part of somebody else's story and you
don't even realize like what you mean to them, because
(37:54):
you've just been living your life and then they do
something that makes it clear that like they don't like you,
or they have an opinion of you, or they're talking
about you behind your back, and like you're like, oh,
I didn't even know that. Yeah, But she puts on
this like if you've heard the song, you'd know exactly
what kind of voice she'd put on, because she's doing
a bit of like, oh, sweetie, it's like you think
(38:15):
me sweetie? Coded yeah, like which is She later has
a song where she's talking about how condescending it is
when people talk to her that way, but she's like
the vibe is like oh, and then she does a
little she's a little kiss to her camera, the most
cutthroat thing I've ever seen. So yes, she does one
of the longer intros to this song, because you can
tell you'd a lot to say. She even, I don't
(38:37):
think I'm imagining this, and I think it's true. She
sits up a bit straight up, she leans it forward
in that director's chair, and she talks about the people
who are so obsessed with her and she doesn't even
realize and she goes in our industry attention is like
the main reward, so thank you for that and yes,
and then she blows a kiss into the camera, but
it's not for us the audience. I felt like it
(38:59):
went right over her yeah, and smacked into the faces
of all her I literally this intro was so like
suckering and like, do you want to say what? You
whispered in my ear when she was oh, no, I
know I can't because I'm a lady. I can't say
it on a podcast, but I say it will bleep it. No,
I won't. I scoffed out loud. You did, put my
(39:22):
head in my hands, laughed, and the woman next to
me started laughing, like at me, but not next year
because it's an empty cinema. She's a few seats away.
She started giggling, but she was happy because she smiled
at me, and she was like yeah, because everyone knows
the guy behind us is like, oh Charlie. Everyone's like,
oh God. And I that reaction she wanted us. I
said a swear word to Laura, and I she's up,
(39:43):
but I mentioned indeering way. I don't know that's what
I got from it. You said it the way you
talk about one of your best friends who off in
the corner doing something at a party, like, oh, she's
such a bitch. Sometimes, like you said something way worse, Laura.
I said a nice complimentary word, but she did say
it like I think the relationship you have. Watching this
(40:04):
movie and a lot of people around us were having
it was like watching a very close friend be in
a public space and we all have that thing close
friends where you're just like, oh my god, I love them.
Oh I hate when she says that, Oh of course
she's going to tell the story again. Oh look, I'm
so proud of her. There she goes, like we're all
having that kind of moment watching her in this And
if one of my friends behave the way that this
was of this giggly like winky face kissed camera, like hah,
(40:28):
you are jealous of me or you love me, like
I would have the same reaction of like it was
like put your head in your hands, laugh at how
ridiculous the situation is. And like, genuinely she made me laugh.
I thought it was so funny. I knew she was
gonna say, oh god, but it was funny. The other
interesting intro was for Cancel, which everyone thinks is about
like a number of famous that made me think Sophie Turner,
(40:49):
Blake Lively and she was saying in that intro that
she's been canceled so many times and she feels so
deeply what that is like. And she said she's become
the person in all these famous circles where the moment
someone feels like they're getting canceled, they call Taylor Swift
and she says, I always say the same thing. I know,
I know, I understand it's gonna be okay, do you
want to go for lunch? Yeah, you're saying that like
(41:11):
seeing the word like cause Okay. These lyric videos are
like Taylor Swift got free license to do a boomerang
under a kaleidoscope. Yeah, because that's all it is. I
think they're on YouTube now and you can look them up.
But it's like one short snippet all from the Fate
of Ophelia music video, which we've already seen, so an
outfit we've already seen on a short loopy boomerang and
then in a weird kaleidoscopy shape where sometimes a fun
(41:32):
color peeks through and like so it's like a bit
of razzle dazzle nothing and then there's words on the screen.
They're not exciting, they're just lyric videos. Yeah, but they're
exciting if you've seen them for the first time, like
I was. But it's also like I was obviously having
a great time because I kept poking Laura and adding things.
But that seeing the words on the screen combined with
what she said about the like should we go for lunch,
it clicked for me. I was like, Oh, this part's
(41:52):
referencing Sophie Turner. The thing that she wanted everyone to
know as we watched that music video for the first time,
that Larry video she wanted us to know was about
Sophie Turner, which I thought was really interesting that that's
the name she picked out to really kind of sell
to us as part of the song because everyone thought
it was more of a blake thing. Everyone thinks it's blake,
but like saying like go to lunch and stuff, and
then the line essentially that made me realize it and
(42:15):
seeing it on the screen made me realize quite a
few of the lines that tighter blake, That tighter Sophie
was the one like did they catch you having too
much fun? Because that was the whole Sophie and Joe
thing was that people were like, she's out partying, Joe's
just to stay at home. Daddy can't keep up with
her crazy girl lifestyle. She's having too much fun for
her mother. And then next minute, Sophie's staying at Taylor's apartment.
(42:35):
She's being taken out to dinner by Taylor Swift, where
everyone's going to see them and they're going to get photographed.
Like that was like as much as people might think,
oh no, like that wasn't that bad. Sophie was being
absolutely canceled over nothing at that point in time, and
it didn't work because Taylor stepped in, Like, I mean,
who knows if that will work again, if Taylor has
that power, but she put a stop to it just
with her own star power, and everyone turned around and
(42:57):
changed their minds. But it was very clear what was
attempted by Joe's team in the press at that point
in time. It's well documented. And then likewise about Blake,
like seeing it on screen, you're like, oh, yeah, she
is talking about Flowers. Oh she is talking about girl
bossing too close to the sun, something that was said
about them. Oh she's saying this thing. Like it just
sort of made that was the one lyric video where
I watched it and I went, oh, yeah, right, yeah,
(43:20):
even though I'd been listening to it, I just, I
don't know, for some reason, seeing it on the screen
worked for me. Yeah, exactly. And then the last intro
we would talk about is the one for father Figure,
because that was also a bit of a lengthy one,
and you could see that she came into that with
a very deliberate plan of what she wanted us to think. Yeah.
So she starts off in that introduction by talking about
like her experience in the industry and like why she
(43:43):
interpolated that song, and she sort of says that, like
George Michael's song obviously talks about more of a romantic relationship,
but she always loved the line of like I can
be your father figure, Yeah, and she wanted to apply
it to the industry and the experiences that she'd had
and to the narrative story of an angeneu and the
person who promises to mentor them and the things that
(44:04):
go wrong and all of the problems that people can face.
But she really really took the time and again kind
of sat forward and what people think is that she
explains that it was really important to her to get
permission from George Michael's estate and from his family before
she ever touched the song. She knew she had an idea.
(44:24):
She didn't want to do anything until she had explicit
permission and she had the rights to the music, and
given the context in the themes of the song, which
is essentially like thinking you can trust somebody, this father figure,
and then them turning on you, or perhaps like you
just protecting yourself, Like there's a lot of weird themes
in there. People think that part of that is a
(44:45):
bit of shade towards Olivia Rodrigo, who did interpolate some
of Taylor's music without permission, and she then had to
give credit to her because their teams demanded credit, and
then they sort of had an industry falling out where
it's never really been addressed, but we know that they
were once like Taylor was calling her her daughter, she
was giving her the first access to Feeless Taylor's version.
They were really really involved with each other, and then
(45:07):
suddenly it was like no longer. So there is believed
to be a bit of bad blood there between them,
and people think that the commentary before this song playing
means that she's hinting that part of this is revolving
around the relationship between her and Olivia. I. It's probably
like quite a lot of truth to that, because the
thing is, she does the intros for twelve songs. They're
very short intros, even the one where she kind of
(45:29):
like where she's talking about her enemies, which grows slightly longer,
So they're very short. And she spent a lot of
time putting this project together and all her face, her image,
her like everything about her on the line. So everything
about those intros of what she's going to say for
two minutes is chosen so specifically and so carefully, and
she would have written and rehearsed about what she wants
to say, so looking at what she chose to include,
(45:51):
and especially that tidbit of like of really getting into
ownership of music and what is the right thing to do,
feels very deliberate. Yeah, Oh Taylor doesn't say anything without
thinking about what it's going to mean. Es but like
maybe off the cuff, but not in a filmed curated
one minute where she's literally in a director stoe, so
she is literally directing exactly what she's doing and what's
being perceived. Yeah, No, that was all on purpose for sure. Yeah,
(46:12):
so I mean overall, so, yes, it was nineteen minutes.
We went to the theater to see it. It was
the photo Ophelia music video twice. I must say it
did hit harder the second time. I was very grateful
they showed me again. Ending on a lyric video wouldn't
have been fun. Yeah, it wouldn't have hit the same way.
Did it deserve to be in cinemas? Potentially not not
at all, if you're what most people are saying, because
(46:33):
at the end of the day, it was a few
snippets and lyric video is in any other artists would
have put that on YouTube. But I do think it
was a smart move of her to put it in
cinemas because the fandom was there, and if you build
up the fandom, then maybe you deserve to also put
it in cinemas and ticket sales don't lie. Yeah, and
it's exactly what it promised to be. That's the thing
it was, as we said, maybe sold us a little
(46:55):
bit more of like an exclusive thing. Yeah, and then
she's out doing every press under the sun saying the
exactly Yeah. I think sometimes I thought there would be
a bit more behind the scenes stuff as small snippets
that so I did. I thought it was going to
be a bit more, but also it was like lyric
videos will be playing on the screen and that I
just didn't think people thought that was going to be
as much as it was. No, but a lot of
(47:15):
people weren'tnhappy about that, so I'm like, there we go.
Kind of it was pretty much what was advertised, but
also in that sense like that's, you know, a cash grab,
and I'm okay with that because I don't have to
spend the cash if I don't want to. But a
lot of people take coverage with that, and that's fair enough.
You don't have to be supportive of the fact that
Taylor does love to get a dollar. She loves to
put on a show. Does well. Thank you so much
(47:36):
for listening to our really honest review of Taylor's a
STU Movie as I'm calling it for a shorthand, and
we will link the episode we did earlier in the
week about all the lyrics and the behind the scenes
stories from the album, which if now you're maybe you've
just discovered t he us so for the first time
listening to us, you're like, Hey, I'd love to know
what the album's about. We will link that in the
show notes. And also make sure you're following us on
our social platforms. We are The Spill Podcast on TikTok
(47:59):
and Instagram. That's where the magic happens. That's where the
videos get posted, and that is where you can tell
us what is your favorite song from the album and
if you saw the movie. The Spill is produced by
Minitia is Iswarren with sound production by Scott Stronick. And
we'll see you back here on your feed at eight
am on Monday for morning Tea. Bye bye,
So you're listening to a Muma Mia podcast. Mama Mea
acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that this
podcast is recorded on Hi. It's Laura Brodnick here, host
of our pop culture and entertainment podcast, The Spill, and
this summer we're curating your lowbrow playlist, bringing you our
brutally honest reviews from the top TV shows of the year,
(00:31):
to the biggest movies of twenty twenty five, and some
of the classics that shaped us. Every episode is giving
you the Spills, completely unfiltered and real takes. So your
summer listening is sorted. And if you're looking for more
to listen to, every Mumma Mea podcast is curating your
summer listening right across our network. From pop culture to
(00:52):
beauty to powerful interviews, there is something for everyone. Just
follow the link in our show notes from Mamma Mia.
Welcome to The Spill, your daily pop culture fix. I'm
Laura Brodnick and I'm Tina Ye, Mommy's pop culture and
social editor and a resonant Taylor Swift expert. Very true
(01:14):
as we have learned, So we're here today for a
brutally honest review of Taylor Swift's new movie Now, it
came into our lives for a brief but interesting moment
one weekend, and Tina and I went to the cinema
to see it together, which we'll get into that in
a second, and so we thought we'd bring you a
brilli honest review. Now, if you've listened to our episode
(01:35):
earlier in the week about all the secrets of Taylor
Swift's new album, that was a bit more technical. It
was about the lyrics, it was about what people were
saying about everyone involved. The movie is its own beast,
it's its own entry into the Taylor Swift universe. And
so we're going to be going through that now. If
you haven't seen it, that's fine. We can't spoil anything.
(01:55):
There's literally nothing to spoil. But if you wann't one
of the people who got a chance to see on
the weekend, we're about to tell you everything that unfolded
and all the drama that has come off the side
of it, all the tea, all the moments you might
have missed, yes, etc. So the movie came out, as
I said, for just one weekend. It was called the
official release party of a Showgirl, and Taylor's have basically
(02:17):
said it was going to be the music video for
the Fate of Ophelia, which is the first single from
the new album, and a bit of behind the scenes
of how she made the music video, and it was
going to be the lyric videos for the rest of
the eleven tracks. And boy was she not lying, because
that is exactly what it was. And I think a
lot of Stifties went into it knowing they would be
just watching the lyrics go across the screen. Yeah, so
(02:38):
they were okay with that. It went on to be
number one at the North American box office and made
thirty three million dollars in just one weekend, and then
also went on to make millions of dollars and also
be number one across many other countries and cinema chains
in the world. So it was a very lucrative weekend
for Miss Swift. It was a big deal. Like everyone
(02:58):
who's anyone at the premiere of a showgirl or whatever
she called it. I liked this title is party, you
come on, you call yourselfice. We just make up whatever
it comes to this title, because it's just about words,
isn't it. So long as you say show girl, you
kind of get something close to it. But it was
a big cinematic event. We were all very excited. You
maybe less so. Well you were coming anyway, I was there.
(03:19):
I went for work purposes because I very much I
really value our audience. I'm not even lying now. I'm
as such a cynical person. I have a heart of
stone and no feelings except for ficure. When I described
what this was to you, like what this cinematic event
was like, I was already like, I'm a huge fan.
I don't know that I need to go see this thing.
So you were not interested at all, and that's understandable.
I said, not only do you have to go because
(03:40):
it's your job, you have to go with me. Yeah,
and there's nothing like a work colleague inviting themselves along
to hang out with you on a Saturday. Yeah, which
is what we did. Which is what we did. So
some cinemas were here's a thing. There was a different
experience depending on where you went some cinema, what time
of day. Because this thing kicked off at like five am.
I know some people were floating the idea like should
you when I go to five am screening? So we
get our coverage up early, and I said, I love
(04:02):
The Spillers so much. I went to the cinema just
to see the movie, just so I could talk about
on this podcast. That's what I did, and I have
no complains about that. But I was in no way
in hell going at five am on a Saturday. So
we went at twelve, which was twelve which is still
pretty early for me. I arrived blurry eyed to the cinema. Also,
like you guys have seen Laura, right, Like you guys
know Laura is. She's always got like a bold lip,
(04:25):
she's always got her hair done like perfectly, not any videos.
I don't outfit steamed, and like I'm there in like
I don't know what I thought I was leading to
where you should have seen her, Oh, you looked phenomenal.
But that's her point, Like God knows what I was
wearying something an outfit for sure, clothes absolutely absolutely, Otherwise
that would have been a very different story. And Laura
(04:45):
and I like, right, it's a morning. I mean it's lunchtime.
But we're like, that's not a popcorn and coke time,
it's not a wine time. This is the am for us.
I mean, I definitely would have gone on wine. But
I had to go and write marriage, but you had
to do it. You had to do some thinking also,
just to set the scene. On the Friday when the
album drops, I'm really excited. Obviously I'm still working, but
I'm trying to listen. You decided to go in with Yes.
I made a journalistic decision, is what I'm calling it.
(05:07):
So Friday the album comes out, huge ripple of excitement
across the world. People lose their minds, including Tina Mary
Burke over here, who John I might use that for
my passwords. I don't try to change those. That's terrible.
Security loses their mind And at that point, you and
I double checking what time we should meet the cinema
(05:27):
and tomorrow, how much time will need for coffee, et cetera,
et cetera, And I said, hey, in the interest of
journalistic integrity and making sure that we attack this new
Taylor Swift movie from every side, why don't you go
in having listened to the album multiple, multiple, multiple times,
which you did, and knowing all the background and knowing
all the lord, knowing the fans were saying, you're in
fifty group chats and everyone was talking about it. You
(05:49):
sat up all might. I didsten to it, and you
had a frantic energy. The next day I did, and
then I went into it not hearing any of the songs.
I didn't look at any of the information online. I've
read no reviews, I read no discourse. So I went
into it completely blind, and it saved my life. Yeah,
and so we go in with really different experiences, which
we will obviously get to. Sorry I sidetracked us, but
(06:10):
point bing, I'm in a Taylor Swift frenzy. It's the
am for us. We go, let's meet, we'll get a coffee,
we'll get a breakfast treat. Laura Brodneck as always, thinks
she's going to be on time. Isn't not her fault,
as UBA's fault. She was a bit my fault. But
Laura comes running into the coffee shop, literally running midday
in like a full face silk skirt, like a classic
(06:33):
Laura ensemble, and I'm in like a pajama tole. Yeah,
well it was casual for you. I'm in like a
pajama top and a striped skirt. That's what I was wearing.
And like I think I was wearing tevas or like
a sneak but like I was looking very cinema casual.
Laura was ready for the premiere, as she should be,
because you need to say there was if there was
an a strange premiere. We didn't get invited, No, we didn't.
We bought the ticket, treated it like it was one. Well,
(06:54):
I don't know about that, but we had to go
by our own coffee, which we're not accustomed to. Can
you say, I have not been to the cinema and
bought a ticket for six or seven years, so I
had to do it. I know you haven't. I know,
That's why I made you buy a tickets. It was like,
how does one procure a movie ticket? And then we
went in and there was ads, and I like, what
is this? But we went in, we got a sweet treat,
we got our coffees, We sat down and I didn't
(07:14):
know what it was going to be about. But as
I said, I'm so glad I hadn't listened to the album.
This wouldn't have been for everyone, but it was the
right decision for me because I was seeing all the
songs for the first time as they played on screen,
which is basically it's what a ninety minute movie? Yeah,
and I'm going to say, about fifty five of those
minutes were just videos with lyrics going across the screen.
(07:38):
And I found that interesting because I was seeing everything
for the first time. If I'd already listened to it,
I would have been like, you get me out of here,
because why if I'd listened to it at home times,
I could watch the text on my own screen with
the Spotify thing where it shows you to text. Yeah,
why am I paying like thirty dollars for a movie
ticket to watch it on screen? No, that's so valid.
But also a lot of the cinemas were like sing
(08:00):
along party vibes. Yeah, so that's the vibe, right, It's
supposed to be like, gather all your friends, go to
the movies. You'll see and we'll talk about what else
was in there. But yeah, every single song. And I
actually turned to Laura at one point I was like,
Dragon is every song? And she was like, yes, Tina,
that is famous what this movie Isfore I was like, Fuck,
it's interesting what you're saying about people dressing up and
(08:21):
people singing along because in my city, no, no, not
our cinema, which I feel like you can probably pick
the one. We went to a tiny cinema and I
won't dock to you because it's next ye. Please, don't
you already gave away my middle name. If anyone, like
anyone else, will like Tina's personal details, just DM me
and I'll give you them. I'll give them to you. Yes,
we went to a really small cinema on a Saturday,
(08:42):
early morning, twelve o'clock. I'm sure there were cinemas well.
I saw them online. I saw cinemas where they were
actually packed. And that is what I really defended this
movie over, because, as I said, once we finished the movie,
I raced home and I wrote a review and I
put it up on which we'll link in the show notes,
and put it up lines that we could have something
out because only out for two days, so the time
was of the essence. And there were a lot of
(09:03):
really scathing reviews about the movie from many like very
prestigious outlets and from many outlets across the world, calling
it greedy, cash grab, calling it useirs, calling it to
service to fans, And in my review I kind of said,
like a little bit, that's missed the point, because yes,
at the end of the day, Tailor Sift put this
movie out to make extra money and for extra promotion. However,
(09:27):
it was really honest about what it was though. Yeah,
it's product and demand, Like there was demand for this product,
which is why she put it out because what we
saw at cinemas across the world was people putting on
their tailor shift outfits, dusting off their erras to her
outfits in many senses, putting on their friendship bracelets, going
to the cinema wanting to recreate the unity and excitement
that they fell to the Errors tour, which for so
(09:49):
many people was such an important, beautiful moment, and it was.
There's so many clips from cinemas of like young girls dancing,
lots of like older girls having a wine watching the show,
so like, very different experience depending. But you and I
coffee in hand, had that. But that's morning fun for
me and some tweets in the front road with a
torch on, and I was this go to boomerang it
(10:10):
and going downstairs to the kids, and you weren't going
to a fight with some tweems. I would have just
lost it. That would have been the perfect cinema. It's
decorum these days, guys. Come on, If I was a kid,
I would have been terrified to make a mistake in
the cinema. It's pretty empty where we were. Yeah, but
when I saw those clips of like, yeah, people singing
in the cinema and people passing friendship bracelets back when
(10:30):
people made outfits, like people were making full show girl outfits,
And I was like, at the end of the day,
tell us his biggest strength has always been, like, she's
really good at creating an event where you feel very
special to be part of it. And she's very good
at creating community for all different ages. And that's all
people want at the moment. They want to go somewhere
dressed up and make friends. You just want to have
a good time, and like whatever, if you've got thirty
(10:52):
bucks to spend and that's what you want to spend
it on, go for gold. Yeah, exactly. So I'm still
trying to get a plan. Actually, if enough Spiller is DM,
maybe she'll do it. I kind of want Laura to
come to my house and watch the errors too. I'll
go to her house. But she never watched the Aras
Tour film. Because you're too. You should watch the film too,
because it's so much fun recreate the magic. I don't
know if anyone wants a brutally honest review of their
errors to it. No, they don't need that. I need
(11:13):
a person, Okay, So I just want the spillers to
harass you into being my friend. That's what I must
tell them that they're in duressing, harassing, and dms every day.
But what I wanted to just quickly circle back into
before we get into the magic of this movie film
is how it obviously worked as a huge marketing strategy,
which is what it was there for. I don't think
that was hidden for anyone around. How it made the
album release more of an event. It made people be
(11:35):
excited to Like at the beginning of the movie, Taylor sists,
I hope you sing along, so she's inferring that I
hope you've streamed this or listen to your vinyl many
times before you come to the cinema. And what I
was really interested in this whole rollout of the Life
of a Showgirl is how much press Taylor Swift did
when she went on New Heights. Everyone's like, I can't
believe she did a podcast, and I say, wallh, she
(11:56):
did her film says podcast. It's very different. But I
was kind of expecting that that would nearly be it,
and then she went on so many different talk shows.
She went on so many radio shows. She gave more
interviews in like a week long period then she's given
in over five years. Was like kind of what I
talied up looking at it. And why I thought that
was interesting is that for so many years the story
(12:17):
has been Taylor Swift doesn't need press, she doesn't need interviews.
She's the one celebrity who has so much power that
she doesn't need to sit for magazine profiles, and she
doesn't have to do the radio interview circuit like we
saw her doing. She doesn't have to go sit in
a talk show bench and like or play a game.
She doesn't have to eat a spicy wing or pretend
to go on a date with someone like. She's moved
(12:39):
beyond traditional press and that was always the big thing
about her. And we could see from the moment she
was doing the countdown on her socials and dropping all
the eastreags, the whole world was watching her. She didn't
need to do any press, So why did she do it?
Can you answer that for me? No? I actually can't. Okay,
we gonna say yes because we had talked about this
(13:00):
previously and you said you could answer it. I mean,
I think there's obvious parts of it. This is the
amount of press that she's done previously, say like before reputation,
this the amount of pressure would be doing. Oh yeah,
I mean like we've seen her do this before, but
not not not since then. And I honestly was surprised
by the radio the late night shows. Yeah, expected because
(13:22):
like she's got a friendly relationship and relationships very they're
very fun, they're very good for radio circuit. Really, the
radio circuit shocked me because this is pop star Taylor Swift,
this is superstar Taylor Swift, and she's on the radio
answering your name questions about like do you think you'd
ever go to space? Like my guy, I do love
that because she had the same reaction when I get
asked if I'm gonna go to space, because that is
(13:42):
a big fear I've talked about on this podcast before
and absolutely not, absolutely I going to space. My favorite
thing was that her reasoning was like, no one would
believe I went, They'd think it was AI, so why
would I? And she also was like it's cold, it's weird,
it's waste. What are we doing? But it's very surprising
to me that she did the radio circuit that I
did not expect. I think it comes in parcel with
why we know she's doing this rollout of like the
(14:03):
big talk shows, is that she's seeing this album as
like her next Grammy winner, her next big award season winner,
And so it's like that's her big plan when she
does those rollouts, is to be more present and to
be more involved in that marketing and in the talk
shows and make sure that she's like front and center
in everyone's minds. And it's also something I think that
she's doing now because maybe she just feels like a
(14:23):
bit more at ease, Like there was a long period
of time Folklore and evermore was obviously like during COVID
she had just come off the back of Rep and Lover,
she was still treading quite carefully. The error's tool like
really reinstated her as that mega star that people were
obsessed with. And I think that now that she feels
(14:44):
happier and more confident in who she is, she's willing
to kind of go back and do those things that
are more traditional and put herself out there and show
that she's like quote unquote fun yeah, Like, I think
that's what she wants. What I love about her is
that she'll make like a quip or a joke on
a talk show and no one reacts because they don't
really understand. Yeah, like is that a joke? What's she's saying?
And so like have you see it in the behind
(15:04):
the scenes of Miss America And she makes a lot
of quips and jokes to her team and no one
reacts to her because I think people just look at
her and they're like, she's wrapped in like this weird
protective bubble rapp. Yeah, And so I think she wants
people to see her as fun. She wants people to
see her as like a cool, fun show girly girl. Yeah,
she's gonna win a couple Grammys. I mean, who knows
now with the reaction to the album roll out, but
I think that's her big plan. She wanted this to
(15:24):
feel huge. But it surprised me because I thought that
this movie was supposed to be like the Secret Sessions thing,
where this would be the place where she revealed stop
and yet she's on radio going this is my favorite song,
this is my favorite thing. So it kind of did
make the movie thing feel a little less special when
she's saying the exact same stuff, if not more, also
on radio. That is so true. I hadn't even thought
(15:45):
about that, because the promise of the movie was to
fans like, you're going to see things before anyone else.
You're going to see the video clip, which I guess
you did. You saw the video clip before other people.
And she was like, I'm going to tell you exactly
why I wrote each song and what I was thinking,
and you won't get there anywhere else except for the
fifteen radio interviews I'm going to do first. Yeah, it's interesting.
I kind of do agree what you're saying that it
was half an award show ploy, like she's essentially starting
(16:07):
her campaign campaign because don't matter how many people love you,
like the Grammy's notoriously a bit dirty with the way
they operate, but they're also notoriously are not going to
be completely swayed by fame. And what we've kind of
picked up from tailors over the years is that no
matter how many tickets sales she has or records she breaks,
she's still very much craves the validation of her industry
and things like the Grammys. So it was half an
(16:29):
award show campaign rollout, and I think what else you're
saying is true too. It was also half of a
personal branding exercise to make her feel less elusive, less godlike,
more like in every Woman. She was bringing little packages
of baked bread to the different radio hosts and she
was talking about like cute little things, and she was
showing her for engaging and she was chatting. She just
(16:49):
looked like, I'm I'm not saying that was an act,
but when you're Taylor Swift, you can't go anywhere without
thinking about how am I going to present myself because
millions upon millions of people are going to dissect this
ten minute interview. And it was jarring. Not in a
bad way. I have no qualms what she does or
does not do with her life, but like it was
a bit jarring compared to what we've seen to have
her there flashing the ring going like, oh, yeah, the
(17:12):
wedding's going to be then then I'm going to do this,
like yeah, yeah, Graham Norton, you can come. It's going
to be a big affair. Like I know that she
behaved that way like you said on New Heights, but
that's literally his podcast. Yeah, that's that's her family, that's
her family. It was very strange to see it so
candidly the way she once upon a time was when
we haven't had that for a very long time, she
very much became Taylors with the brand, Taylor's with trademark,
(17:33):
like that's who she's been for a long time. And
even if she lets her personality out and even if
she shines through, she's still that person presenting all the time.
And you saw it at the Era's tour, even in
the fact that a lot of what she said was rehearsed,
there was very rarely an off the cuff moment said
on tour. It was all very like by the minute,
exact same thing said every single night. Yeah, one hundred percent,
And there's nothing wrong with that, but it's part of
(17:54):
that thing that she's been so careful about. So it
was weird a little bit to be like, what do
you mean you're talking about like your wedding. Yeah, it
was even telling us starring in an interesting way. So
the personal branding is what brings us to the movie.
So at the top of the movie, she talks about
wanting to give fans a sneak peek encourages people to
see along yes with ror grievance. Yeah. Absolutely. The top
(18:15):
of the movie is an ad for Target USA where
you can buy an exclusive vinyl of Taylor Swift's album
at Target. Just take it out like, oh yeah for
an audience, because that wasn't that's the case her. Yeah,
that annoyed me. It just really frustrated me because I
was like, again, it was a choice, we chose to go.
I have lots of positive memories of Saturday that old
(18:36):
Cherish forever and I had a good time. But if
you're going to make people come and pay money to
see this thing that you've done that is generic and
is across every audience, can you at least change the
American ad from the start of the video. It's a
very fun ad, it's very show girl. We can't buy it,
so can you just take it out? And can you
just do an intro like, Hey, Australia and New Zealand,
(18:57):
head to my website. Do anything that makes it feel
like we didn't just get a weird DVD from America
and like my mum pressed play like an illegal, pirated copy.
That's kind of how that made it feel such it
was weird. It's such a fair grievance that I hope
she takes off. Thank you, But then it introduces Taylor
and she doesn't intro It introduces Taylor and we get
into the movie. What is really interesting in this movie
(19:19):
is that it is as much as it's marketing for
the album, it's also coming off what you're saying about
her interviews, a huge exercise in public branding and making
her look like everyone's best friend, but also a creative force,
which we already thought of. But it starts off with
the making of the Fate of Ophelia music video, which
(19:39):
is a thread that goes all the way through. We
see the music video, which was sickeningly good, Like what
did you love about it? I think this is the
see we see the video. Really, she's ever made, the
best music video she's ever made. I think, so why
I'm not just agree with you, I'm just so interesting
because I know that you watch all of them so intently,
so that really means a lot. And I do think
so you get to see it twice, you get bad,
(20:03):
you do, but I did enjoy seeing it, and then
obviously they talk through it, so maybe that's also part
of why I thought it was so much better. So
if you haven't seen it yet, a lot of the
segments are one shot takes, which is a very hard
thing to do, and you need to practice and you
need to rehearse a lot, but what it usually delivers
is like something very beautiful. And she had set all
of hers in different ARTSI worlds. So first section, she's
(20:26):
recreating the painting of Ophelia, and then she you know,
comes out of the painting, and then it turns into
her going into another painting and there's all these moving
parts around her, and then she sort of progresses through
various stages of showgirls, which you learn from the film
is that she wanted the music video to showcase all
of the different ways that a showgirl may peep. And
then like she's a tenuous link because she kind of
(20:47):
calls Ophelia a showgirl, but she's like in the sense
that she was in a painting and you're like, all right,
like fiantistic purposes will go with her and say yes,
But she sort of goes through, you know, like girls
who dance in the kickout clubs. She goes through like
the girls who did like the water performances in their
viduled swimsuits, and like she does like herself at the
(21:07):
end of each night of the Eras tour, so she's
like a show girl would have looked like through various
phases in time. There's a moment where she has like
a Marilyn moment with the blonde wig and like the corset.
I just thought that it was a very stunning and
well choreographed routine from the start to finish. And she
had all of her Errors Tour dancers, she had her band,
she had all of these different people popping up. So
(21:28):
that was also fun because if someone popped up on
the screen, I was like, Oh, it's Cam, or like
oh it's this person, or hey, that's her guitar. Her
whole entire come to because she really set up the
Errors tour. She always said like we welcome you to
the Eras too. Well, we are so excited you're here.
At the end of the Eras tour, you see the
faces and names of all the dances and band flush ups.
So she was always trying to make it look like
a community. And I think that's a little nod to
(21:49):
fans from the RAS tours, like here's all the dances
you loved dancing next to me, and they all get
to have a little part. This making of the music
video was my favorite part of this movie. I could
have watched just ninety interesting. I sound it so interesting
how she's explaining the setup. We're behind the scenes on
all of these different shots. And this is when you
see two parts of Taylor Swift. And because you only
(22:12):
really see like maybe half an hour of footage, maybe
not even that, twenty minutes of footage of the behind
the scenes making of and they were doing it for
such a long time. I'm always really interesting of which
pieces someone like Taylor Swift, who is in charge of everything,
which pieces she picks to show. And she shows a
lot of scenes of her really explaining because she directed
and wrote the music video and came up and the
(22:34):
song and she basically she did everything and she really
wants that to come across the audience. There's a lot
of different shots of her explaining in very intense detail
what her vision is where people need to be. You
see her collaborating with people like Mandy Moore, who's like
a very famous choreographer choreographer, but it's not to make
confused with Mandy Moore. The actress. No, she wasn't there
that day as far as we know, and so we
(22:57):
see her really sharing her vision and going back and
forth and all these sorts of things, and we also
see her being like, not take charge, but it's very
clear that she is in charge. And she's saying like, oh,
she's like, we'll go again. Yeah, she said, were going
to again. We didn't get it go again this way.
And then she's also saying to everyone, we have to
get it in one shop. It has to be one shot.
We cannot find it in the edit. We have to
get it now, all these different things, and you see
(23:18):
her really giving that intense feedback and also being like,
they shoot it, and everyone's like, they shoot one of
the final shots from they're in the room partying, and
she looks at them monitor and straight away she's like, no,
I know you guys think that was good, but it
needs to be demer, that's not right. We go again.
And also interestingly watching all the dancers do all these
very specific moves. It's such a dance heavy video. There's
(23:40):
so much precision in like the movement of like this
person comes across the corridor and this person throws a
football to tailor and then she throws it back and
this person jumps into the ocean and all this sort
of stuff, And it's really interesting that none of the
music plays during that. They do that whole sequence with
the entire video off clicks. It is surprising to me
that she even sings, because in parts of it she
(24:02):
was she was seeing. That was weird because the whole
wee never does And I think it's the fact that
she does trust the errors to our team that month
that explicitly not enough to play the song, not enough
to fully play the song. But she also if you
watch the behind the scenes of like the Me music video,
it's just the clicks, so they're dancing and let me
audio it for you guys, it's literally just like and
you're like, wow, that was great. I can't believe we
(24:23):
just danced to that track. Yeah, because her music is
under such locking key that even with her most trusted
team members, she can't play the She's even saying the
lyrics out loud, which is like, shows how much she
does actually trust them. But it is strange, so like
they have all just worked together for so long now
and it was nice to see her bring them back,
but it was kind of weird, And I think the
point you've sort of made about her directing, I do
want to say that, like it was all very like
(24:45):
I want to do the best I can do, is
how it all came across. Not that she ever thought
someone else didn't do a good enough job. It was
always like I can do that better. Yeah, I know
I can nail that better. I know that I can
do this better. The one was the lighting one in
the final scene, but otherwise she was like, no, let
me try one more time. I'm gonna do one more
and I'm just gonna fall at the right time off
this ship. I'm just gonna walk down the steps at
(25:06):
this exact right time. And like, I do think she
takes that very so seriously. Yeah, in that she has
been criticized for not being a good enough dancer or
not being like cool enough, or not having like enough
stage presence. So I think that's something she tries to
really she wants you to know how hard she worked. Yeah, exactly.
And I think maybe this is also her like decades
early run at an oscars. Yeah, because she does want
(25:29):
to get into directing. She's said it before. I think
she really wants an Oscar. She's come very close. So
all two l music video was potentially in the running
for Best Short Film for the Oscars. It didn't make
it through to like the final long list. But also
she had a slam dunk almost with Cats Is that
she she did everything right, a big screen adaptation of
a classic Broadway musical. She co wrote a song with
(25:50):
Andrew Lloyd Webber that was critically acclaimed. In any other
world except that people hated Cats so much. In any
other world, she would have at least got an Oscar nomination,
And that is why she was out promoing and doing
all the red carpets and things for Cats. Is She
was like, very soon, I'm going to be at the Oscars,
and I'm potentially gonna win my first which is the
thing that you can tell she really wants. Yeah, so
(26:13):
I think she does. So and Andrew Lord Webber let
her down, I know, but she wants that director lifestyle.
So like, I think this is her showing off her
skill set for sure, and like making it clear to
all of us that this is her her skill and
making it clear that she's just one of the gang.
That was the other thing that I thought she went
to great great pains, and I understand why the tiniest
little just hint that Taylor Swift treated anyone badly on
(26:36):
that set, that she was in any way difficult, that
she in any way said anything to anyone that made
them upset, would just ruin her in a way that
it wouldn't so much with other celebrities, because she has
cultivated this, not to her enemies, but to her in
a circle who there's so many stories come out about
how well she treats her band and Luly she doesn't.
But I'm just saying, like, we get a lot of
(26:56):
information around that, because it's very clear that her team
want us to know that she treats her dance as well.
She treats her band members well, she keeps people with
her for a long time, she gives bonuses to people,
She's very collaborative, And there was a lot of clips
that would deliberately showing and put in there to show
her being like one of the gals on the set.
Like when someone's like, oh, we could have your bread
(27:17):
in the music video, and because she's been baking this
out door and she gets sold, she's like my bread
in the video. Really, could you think that could happen.
Do you think it could happen? Do you think it happened?
I'm like, girl, you're the boss. You can do whatever
you want. Why are you going and asking everyone on
the room if your bread's allowed to be in there?
And then acting like this miracle has occurred. She was like,
my god, my bread is going to be in a
music video. I was like, you're in your laughing video
(27:37):
and you're directed. You can literally put anything you want
in there. I don't mean that to be nickpicky. I
don't mean it to be that. I know that's not
a really mean girl. I just I just meant like,
I know what you mean. Yeah. The bits that she
chooses to show, and there's all these moments where she
kind of walks in and I'm sure she meant it too,
and she's being like, she'll go into every dancer and
be like, you look beautiful, you look beautiful, you look beautiful.
You'll that you nailed it, you nailed, you nailed It's
so good, it's so good, it's so good. I'm not
(27:59):
saying she doesn't talk like that, but I do think
she has to go above and beyond so that there's
no question, because there would be a question if she
didn't do it. Oh, absolutely, yeah, she can't do that.
She can't like have a normal casual work acquaintance. No, no,
she can't come in and be like I've had the
longest day and I told you put that light there.
You didn't put it there, and which would be very fair,
(28:20):
a very fair reaction to have. But when you Taylor Swift,
you've got to be on the whole time. Yeah, and
we saw it, We did see it. And I think
like they spent two years together on that stage every
other day, and like she really on the tour, and
then now in this music video, has tried to make
it very clear that like she sees them as like
her friends and family. Yeah, like that last one's the
show once. Now that this video is done, who knows,
(28:40):
but like it's still nice to see them all together
and see that like she is going out of her
way to at least try to Like I wonder how
much they got for the music video. Yeah, well quite
a lot, I'm sure, because she does pay very high.
Oh my god, and she was tipping them all like
here's one hundred K, Like, yeah, I love that when
you're making that much money too, it's all relative as well.
It seems like a lot to ask, but for her, yeah,
pretty to be a backup dancer for Taylor Swift, get
(29:02):
a dollar or two, have some fun, some fun vibes.
So the most of the movie is is we see
the video play, not once but twice. The pharophilia start
at the end. Yeah, we see at the start, we
see the end. We see snippets throughout the movie that
is the making of the video clip, and then the
rest of the movie is made up of the lyric
(29:24):
video of every song on the Life of a Show
Go album with a little intro from Taylor sif now
because everything's so set up. The way that she chose
to do those intros I thought was very interesting. She's
seeing a director's chair because she's the director. She's wearing
red and she's got a matching red lip and she's
got a hair tied back and like a messy, messy pony,
(29:45):
messy pony, a very like curly fringe like hair do.
I'm sure took hours, but it's also meant to look like, Yeah,
she's got a red lip on, but she's not overly
done up. She's a working girl. She's got like boots
and socks on, and she's looking very like she's about
to spring into directing action. And it's also meant to
very visually beautiful because it's Taylor Swift, so her red
(30:06):
lip matches her red top. And also there's a set
behind her which is a big floor to ceiling painting
which was yeah, and set with the red in it
that matches her top and lipstick. So it's all really beautiful.
But then we see the set has been just nudged
over tire a little bit, and so you can see
behind the scenes onto the real set, which looks like
(30:26):
behind the scenes of a theater, very messy, very chaotic,
very creative. So it's meant to like show you that
whole setup of where she's doing the intros. It's meant
to show you you've come into this beautiful world that
she's creative. But you're on the set with her, so
you're in the midst of the chaos. Yeah, you're in
the director's share. Yeah, you're in with her, and you're
getting betting the hot takes and the special takes. And
(30:47):
then she talks for forty five seconds about each song. Okay,
let's go through lyric video we go through the intros
for all the different songs. What I did love about
the Fate of Ophelia intro, Like everyone makes fun of
the whole, like because Taylor's we've called herself that English
teacher in that one post when she got engaged, and
like it's kind of a joke off, like people have
said in the past, especially with like folklore evermore and
(31:08):
talk of poets that like she waffles too lyrical, like
too poetic, whatever. She kind of makes a bit of
a joke of that. But I think there's a lot
of chatter online about how people expected the Fate of
Ophelia song to actually be more rooted in the Shakespeare story,
and it's like that's obviously not she was going to
relate it to herself. That's not what she was going
to do. But the introduction is quite funny to the
song because she talks about how she's like, oh, like
(31:31):
it's just like I get so attached to these Shakespeare characters.
I love Shakespeare, and I'm like, okay, I don't, but
good for you. No, we all don't like Shakespeare. We
love Shakespeare. But that's the way to say everywhere you
know who does. But she acknowledges that she acknowledges that
she goes, I know, what a wild thing to say
about Shakespeare. That's what I mean. It's kind of funny,
like she's like whatever, but then she's like, every time
(31:51):
one of them dies, I get so sad. Yeah, well
it is famously called a tragedy tale. Yeah, like you
are meant to be sad. Correct, She's a stute and
so what she kind of does is try to be like,
I am just gonna like maybe save Ophelia from this
sad fate. But it's not really about that. But she
makes a joke of like the Romeo and Juliet song,
like she's like, I try to save these women from
(32:11):
their fate. And I'm like, yeah, she's like, I do
that thing I do where I look at Shakespeare and
she is and Shakespeare actually holds up, and I'm like,
I know that's it to sound dumb, but she's correct.
Shakespeare does hold up in a way that a lot
of other literature from that time period, all the decades
that followed it still inspire an adaptation. And again it's
(32:31):
I know, it's a wild thing to say Shakespeare good,
but she said it. She went out and she went
she's not afraid to say controversial things. She's not and like,
you know what, good But the intro is quite funny
because she is like Shakespeare holds up and you know,
I like to save these characters from tragedy because I
get really sad when they die. Yeah, she's like, I
love to say. Look, She's like, I love to look
at Shakespeare's stories and say, but what if they got together?
(32:53):
And also what it comes to me and what it
Then it cuts to the song You're like, fair enough,
fair enough, Taylor and I don't understand. So we had that.
That was quite funny, and also I just enjoyed it
because so many people have been like, this song's not
shakespeare enough, and it's like she's just inserting herself in
the story and you loved it when she did it
film Love Story, she was taking herself from the idea
of a feliure in paintings and through artists interpretations rather
(33:15):
than a Felia's full story from the play. Is what
I took from. Famously, I don't think Taylor Swif's boyfriends
have murdered her father. Yeah, that went off. Stay changed
For the next album, we learned what Opalite was I'm
gonna say I didn't know what opel it was. Apparently
she got it wrong too, so I don't know. This
is what I'm sure Just so you know, I'm getting
all my opolite information from Taylor Smith too, so it
(33:35):
can't be wrong me too. So yeah, she explained what
oplite was, which was like man made opal I want
to say, yeah, and then it's like the stone for
Travis Kelsey's birth mom. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and she
louded those incorrect. Well, apparently there's something to do with
it being man made. Is it's not exactly the same
as like man made diamonds and stuff. I mean, I
feel like people got to be technical on the fake rocks.
(33:57):
All she said was that she and her mum. It's
so funny because this is where the press and the
movie were butting heads because people were saying, well, in
the interviews she said that opal was linked to Travis
Kelcey and in the movie, she said Opal's are a
special thing that she and her mum shared. One of
us she has one of the many things we share together,
and Opalite is the idea of making your own luck
(34:18):
and making your own happy. Ending Yeah, and people got
upset about that, and I was like, I do think
what you're saying is true. It's probably just both. It's
probably just both, but it was. Yeah. That was the
vibe of what she said about Opalite was that it
was like taking something man made and making it for yourself.
And that's how she feels about the romance with Travis Kelson,
that they had the opportunity to create something and she's
never made anything. I think the line is like, I've
never made anything as beautiful as this, or Opelite is
(34:40):
my favorite song. Yeah, that's a controversial take. Some people
hate song, but like she does all these o's that
sound Christmas y and there's like a jangly bell. It's
kind of like when Little Mix released that like love
Me Like You, and it just sounds like a Christmas
song even though it's not. That's how I feel about Opalite.
And she also just says that she writes down words
that she thinks are interesting when she hears them. So
(35:01):
she wrote down Opalite and then she just works it
into a song, yeah, which doesn't sound groundbreaking, but I
just love that she's got a notes out for Yeah.
She said a couple times she was like I've got
a long list in my phone that I just scroll
through and then someone has a beat or a melody
that suits, and then all one of the words, how
that could fit? Man, I love to see that note.
That's just so creative. What's in her? But she was
funny because she was like some of its trash. Yeah,
(35:23):
that it is everyone's ideas like that. So she goes
through the different intros to song. The one that gets
the biggest laugh in our cinema with the six people
who are in there, but also I've seen other cinemas
that are packed. Yeah, the one that gets the biggest
laugh is the introduction to Wood. Would you like to
tell people what she said there? Well, Wood is the
song about Travis Kelsey's penis. Yea, and oh it's not
(35:43):
just about that, it's about how sexy times are. And
she introduces that song as like it's all about superstitious. Yeah,
she's like stepping on her crack knocking on wood, Like
she just does it in this really silly, nonchalant tailor way,
but where she can't be that joky, and so she's
got this like silly little grin on her face. That's
the thing is that the movie was like a G
(36:05):
rated movie because I think she was so aware that
she has a young fan base, and we saw heaps
of kids being taken to the cinema by their parents.
And so when she's talking about wood, she's like, it's
about black cats and stepping on cracks and things like that,
and she just stops, looks at the camera and everyone
laughs because they're like, hah, it's about penises. Yeah. And
then but also Laura hasn't heard the songs at this point. No,
so then in the cinema it was all the clean
(36:27):
versions and all that. Yeah, that's interesting, isn't it. As
all the songs come on, I'm like whispering to Laura
and telling her what it is. And then yeah, I
want to have this sounded to people behind it, because
across the screen it comes up that was the key
that opened my skies, and I did know some part
of me knew that was not the right lyrics. And
then new lean over really loud and go the real
lyric is the key that opened my thighs. It was
(36:49):
a few times and I was like, I get it,
I get it. I'm listening to the clean version. So
that got a big laugh and then the women next
to me were having a great time because I was
having to tell you everything. They really enjoyed what we
sp Oh, yeah, that was a whispers and they always
spring too, like everyone was having a little chatter. Well
it was, I mean it's not there's I hate talking
(37:10):
in movies, as you know. Don't talk to me, don't
talk to anyone else, don't look at your phone, which
I didn't do. I think you're in the movies dead
silence except for laughter and maybe a gasp if you're
a scaredy cat. It's fine and tells the movie because
that was designed for people to talk and clap and
sing along, and it was a lot of just lyrics
on the screen. So what else are you gonna do? Yes,
going into the actually romantic that was probably one of
(37:32):
the longest intros. Yeah, and she really goes to town in that. Yeah.
So that is the introduction to the song that is
believed to be about Charlie XCX and the relationship that
they have. Yes, and she sort of introduces the song
as like being about when you don't even realize that
you were a part of somebody else's story and you
don't even realize like what you mean to them, because
(37:54):
you've just been living your life and then they do
something that makes it clear that like they don't like you,
or they have an opinion of you, or they're talking
about you behind your back, and like you're like, oh,
I didn't even know that. Yeah, But she puts on
this like if you've heard the song, you'd know exactly
what kind of voice she'd put on, because she's doing
a bit of like, oh, sweetie, it's like you think
(38:15):
me sweetie? Coded yeah, like which is She later has
a song where she's talking about how condescending it is
when people talk to her that way, but she's like
the vibe is like oh, and then she does a
little she's a little kiss to her camera, the most
cutthroat thing I've ever seen. So yes, she does one
of the longer intros to this song, because you can
tell you'd a lot to say. She even, I don't
(38:37):
think I'm imagining this, and I think it's true. She
sits up a bit straight up, she leans it forward
in that director's chair, and she talks about the people
who are so obsessed with her and she doesn't even
realize and she goes in our industry attention is like
the main reward, so thank you for that and yes,
and then she blows a kiss into the camera, but
it's not for us the audience. I felt like it
(38:59):
went right over her yeah, and smacked into the faces
of all her I literally this intro was so like
suckering and like, do you want to say what? You
whispered in my ear when she was oh, no, I
know I can't because I'm a lady. I can't say
it on a podcast, but I say it will bleep it. No,
I won't. I scoffed out loud. You did, put my
(39:22):
head in my hands, laughed, and the woman next to
me started laughing, like at me, but not next year
because it's an empty cinema. She's a few seats away.
She started giggling, but she was happy because she smiled
at me, and she was like yeah, because everyone knows
the guy behind us is like, oh Charlie. Everyone's like,
oh God. And I that reaction she wanted us. I
said a swear word to Laura, and I she's up,
(39:43):
but I mentioned indeering way. I don't know that's what
I got from it. You said it the way you
talk about one of your best friends who off in
the corner doing something at a party, like, oh, she's
such a bitch. Sometimes, like you said something way worse, Laura.
I said a nice complimentary word, but she did say
it like I think the relationship you have. Watching this
(40:04):
movie and a lot of people around us were having
it was like watching a very close friend be in
a public space and we all have that thing close
friends where you're just like, oh my god, I love them.
Oh I hate when she says that, Oh of course
she's going to tell the story again. Oh look, I'm
so proud of her. There she goes, like we're all
having that kind of moment watching her in this And
if one of my friends behave the way that this
was of this giggly like winky face kissed camera, like hah,
(40:28):
you are jealous of me or you love me, like
I would have the same reaction of like it was
like put your head in your hands, laugh at how
ridiculous the situation is. And like, genuinely she made me laugh.
I thought it was so funny. I knew she was
gonna say, oh god, but it was funny. The other
interesting intro was for Cancel, which everyone thinks is about
like a number of famous that made me think Sophie Turner,
(40:49):
Blake Lively and she was saying in that intro that
she's been canceled so many times and she feels so
deeply what that is like. And she said she's become
the person in all these famous circles where the moment
someone feels like they're getting canceled, they call Taylor Swift
and she says, I always say the same thing. I know,
I know, I understand it's gonna be okay, do you
want to go for lunch? Yeah, you're saying that like
(41:11):
seeing the word like cause Okay. These lyric videos are
like Taylor Swift got free license to do a boomerang
under a kaleidoscope. Yeah, because that's all it is. I
think they're on YouTube now and you can look them up.
But it's like one short snippet all from the Fate
of Ophelia music video, which we've already seen, so an
outfit we've already seen on a short loopy boomerang and
then in a weird kaleidoscopy shape where sometimes a fun
(41:32):
color peeks through and like so it's like a bit
of razzle dazzle nothing and then there's words on the screen.
They're not exciting, they're just lyric videos. Yeah, but they're
exciting if you've seen them for the first time, like
I was. But it's also like I was obviously having
a great time because I kept poking Laura and adding things.
But that seeing the words on the screen combined with
what she said about the like should we go for lunch,
it clicked for me. I was like, Oh, this part's
(41:52):
referencing Sophie Turner. The thing that she wanted everyone to
know as we watched that music video for the first time,
that Larry video she wanted us to know was about
Sophie Turner, which I thought was really interesting that that's
the name she picked out to really kind of sell
to us as part of the song because everyone thought
it was more of a blake thing. Everyone thinks it's blake,
but like saying like go to lunch and stuff, and
then the line essentially that made me realize it and
(42:15):
seeing it on the screen made me realize quite a
few of the lines that tighter blake, That tighter Sophie
was the one like did they catch you having too
much fun? Because that was the whole Sophie and Joe
thing was that people were like, she's out partying, Joe's
just to stay at home. Daddy can't keep up with
her crazy girl lifestyle. She's having too much fun for
her mother. And then next minute, Sophie's staying at Taylor's apartment.
(42:35):
She's being taken out to dinner by Taylor Swift, where
everyone's going to see them and they're going to get photographed.
Like that was like as much as people might think,
oh no, like that wasn't that bad. Sophie was being
absolutely canceled over nothing at that point in time, and
it didn't work because Taylor stepped in, Like, I mean,
who knows if that will work again, if Taylor has
that power, but she put a stop to it just
with her own star power, and everyone turned around and
(42:57):
changed their minds. But it was very clear what was
attempted by Joe's team in the press at that point
in time. It's well documented. And then likewise about Blake,
like seeing it on screen, you're like, oh, yeah, she
is talking about Flowers. Oh she is talking about girl
bossing too close to the sun, something that was said
about them. Oh she's saying this thing. Like it just
sort of made that was the one lyric video where
I watched it and I went, oh, yeah, right, yeah,
(43:20):
even though I'd been listening to it, I just, I
don't know, for some reason, seeing it on the screen
worked for me. Yeah, exactly. And then the last intro
we would talk about is the one for father Figure,
because that was also a bit of a lengthy one,
and you could see that she came into that with
a very deliberate plan of what she wanted us to think. Yeah.
So she starts off in that introduction by talking about
like her experience in the industry and like why she
(43:43):
interpolated that song, and she sort of says that, like
George Michael's song obviously talks about more of a romantic relationship,
but she always loved the line of like I can
be your father figure, Yeah, and she wanted to apply
it to the industry and the experiences that she'd had
and to the narrative story of an angeneu and the
person who promises to mentor them and the things that
(44:04):
go wrong and all of the problems that people can face.
But she really really took the time and again kind
of sat forward and what people think is that she
explains that it was really important to her to get
permission from George Michael's estate and from his family before
she ever touched the song. She knew she had an idea.
(44:24):
She didn't want to do anything until she had explicit
permission and she had the rights to the music, and
given the context in the themes of the song, which
is essentially like thinking you can trust somebody, this father figure,
and then them turning on you, or perhaps like you
just protecting yourself, Like there's a lot of weird themes
in there. People think that part of that is a
(44:45):
bit of shade towards Olivia Rodrigo, who did interpolate some
of Taylor's music without permission, and she then had to
give credit to her because their teams demanded credit, and
then they sort of had an industry falling out where
it's never really been addressed, but we know that they
were once like Taylor was calling her her daughter, she
was giving her the first access to Feeless Taylor's version.
They were really really involved with each other, and then
(45:07):
suddenly it was like no longer. So there is believed
to be a bit of bad blood there between them,
and people think that the commentary before this song playing
means that she's hinting that part of this is revolving
around the relationship between her and Olivia. I. It's probably
like quite a lot of truth to that, because the
thing is, she does the intros for twelve songs. They're
very short intros, even the one where she kind of
(45:29):
like where she's talking about her enemies, which grows slightly longer,
So they're very short. And she spent a lot of
time putting this project together and all her face, her image,
her like everything about her on the line. So everything
about those intros of what she's going to say for
two minutes is chosen so specifically and so carefully, and
she would have written and rehearsed about what she wants
to say, so looking at what she chose to include,
(45:51):
and especially that tidbit of like of really getting into
ownership of music and what is the right thing to do,
feels very deliberate. Yeah, Oh Taylor doesn't say anything without
thinking about what it's going to mean. Es but like
maybe off the cuff, but not in a filmed curated
one minute where she's literally in a director stoe, so
she is literally directing exactly what she's doing and what's
being perceived. Yeah, No, that was all on purpose for sure. Yeah,
(46:12):
so I mean overall, so, yes, it was nineteen minutes.
We went to the theater to see it. It was
the photo Ophelia music video twice. I must say it
did hit harder the second time. I was very grateful
they showed me again. Ending on a lyric video wouldn't
have been fun. Yeah, it wouldn't have hit the same way.
Did it deserve to be in cinemas? Potentially not not
at all, if you're what most people are saying, because
(46:33):
at the end of the day, it was a few
snippets and lyric video is in any other artists would
have put that on YouTube. But I do think it
was a smart move of her to put it in
cinemas because the fandom was there, and if you build
up the fandom, then maybe you deserve to also put
it in cinemas and ticket sales don't lie. Yeah, and
it's exactly what it promised to be. That's the thing
it was, as we said, maybe sold us a little
(46:55):
bit more of like an exclusive thing. Yeah, and then
she's out doing every press under the sun saying the
exactly Yeah. I think sometimes I thought there would be
a bit more behind the scenes stuff as small snippets
that so I did. I thought it was going to
be a bit more, but also it was like lyric
videos will be playing on the screen and that I
just didn't think people thought that was going to be
as much as it was. No, but a lot of
(47:15):
people weren'tnhappy about that, so I'm like, there we go.
Kind of it was pretty much what was advertised, but
also in that sense like that's, you know, a cash grab,
and I'm okay with that because I don't have to
spend the cash if I don't want to. But a
lot of people take coverage with that, and that's fair enough.
You don't have to be supportive of the fact that
Taylor does love to get a dollar. She loves to
put on a show. Does well. Thank you so much
(47:36):
for listening to our really honest review of Taylor's a
STU Movie as I'm calling it for a shorthand, and
we will link the episode we did earlier in the
week about all the lyrics and the behind the scenes
stories from the album, which if now you're maybe you've
just discovered t he us so for the first time
listening to us, you're like, Hey, I'd love to know
what the album's about. We will link that in the
show notes. And also make sure you're following us on
our social platforms. We are The Spill Podcast on TikTok
(47:59):
and Instagram. That's where the magic happens. That's where the
videos get posted, and that is where you can tell
us what is your favorite song from the album and
if you saw the movie. The Spill is produced by
Minitia is Iswarren with sound production by Scott Stronick. And
we'll see you back here on your feed at eight
am on Monday for morning Tea. Bye bye,
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