Taylor Swift: Creating Art from Heartbreak through Song and Film
Taylor Swift performing Red in March 2013. | Photo courtesy of Wiki Commons
(REVIEW) On Friday, Nov. 12th, international country-turned-pop star Taylor Swift made her short film directorial debut. Swift has co-directed a number of her music videos, directed a good amount on her own and has had a heavy hand in her tour documentaries. Swift has been a force to be reckoned with since her career began when she was just 14, and she has been making waves in the industry ever since. Her short film was one more creative outlet to be conquered.
“All Too Well” was never a single, yet after the initial release of Red in 2012, it quickly became a fan favorite. The vivid descriptions, paired with her honest pain and intense vocals that were made to be screamed along with, Swift had crafted a song that even those who didn’t care for her began to fall in love with. Often in interviews or on stage at concerts, Swift would tease that there was a 10-minute version lying around somewhere. When Swift announced that she would be re-recording her six first albums, due to her masters being sold out from under her, her fans knew that they would finally get what they had been longing for.
Just two weeks before the highly anticipated release of Red (Taylor’s Version) Swift announced that she would also be releasing “All Too Well: The Short Film.” Written and directed by Swift, scored by Swift’s song “All Too Well (10-Minute-Version) (Taylor’sVersion),” starring Sadie Sink (Stranger Things) and Dylan O’Brien (Teen Wolf), alongside cinematographer Rina Yang, the short film quickly became high on the list of things for her fans to be extremely impatient for.
The premiere of the short film garnered over 14 million views within the first night, which for someone with Swift’s caliber may not be surprising, but is impressive nonetheless.
The 15-minute film depicts “Her” (Sink) and “Him” (O’Brien) through a dramatic, beautiful and heart-wrenching love story. The camera follows them as they live out the lyrics penned by Swift. In a manner that could have easily become kitschy, the two traipse around what seems to be a cabin, take strolls through the woods in upstate New York and take long drives stealing looks and kisses. Swift avoids the kitschiness of it all not just in her choice of actors and cinematographer but in the meaningfulness of her lyrics.
The lyrics, both soft and belted, cut to the core. The pieces from the 2012 release hit just as hard as they first did, but the impact of first hearing phrases like “you kept me like a secret / I kept you like an oath” strike in a way that makes it feel impossible for the song to have ever existed without it. In the film, the line is sung over a scene of Him and Her holding each other close in the quiet solitude of a cabin upstate. In the single scene, Swift captures the crumbling feeling of believing a relationship is secret for the sanctity of it, only to realize it was for the other person to save face.
The film follows the two through the rest of the song, as she navigates his manipulation, her feelings of inadequacy and “The Reeling” of being broken up with. Again, the visuals are intimately tied to the lyrics, but with writing so incredibly descriptive it is nearly impossible not to; it never feels forced or awkward for Swift to use the lyrics as direction for scenes. Not only does she utilize her own lyrics, but she also leans into her love for literature by titling scenes with chapter titles that imitate the story of the characters.
From beginning to end, the film is beautiful. Yang’s cinematography captures the essence of fall as the characters spend time “always skipping town,” close-ups of intimate moments, long, uncut shots of fights allow the film to become entirely personal and distanced shots of Her in the aftermath create the divide she feels after the break-up. Sink and O’Brien have a dynamic that makes the story come to life. Sink’s portrayal of Her is real in the ways that no young girl wants it to be but has felt. O’Brien is nearly too good at making the viewer hate him.
As the film and the song narrate the story of Her and Him falling in love, fighting, reconciling, and fighting, and reconciling, breaking up, her pain, and her eventual success in spite of the pain he caused, the viewer is taken on the journey with them both. Of course, there are deep-hidden easter eggs for Swift fans — nods to past liner notes and hints at future releases — and there are motifs recognizable by both the casual viewer and avid fan —the red scarf that appears in scenes and lines through the entire short film — but the film is good in its own right and worth being noted. It is simple, sad, and lovely. It is filled with gorgeous cinematography, actors with good chemistry and a story that gave 14 million people something to watch on a Friday night.