Miss Americana review

It should be clear by now that it’s hard to make a documentary about a musical superstar that has anything interesting to say. Even the biopics recently have been significantly watered down by the subjects they portray having too much influence over the final product. And few have more influence over their own final product than Taylor Swift, who’s recently teamed with acclaimed documentarian Lana Wilson for Miss Americana, a brief (85 minutes) look back at her world dominating career.

Watching Wilson try to find moments of sincerity amidst the suffocating media management of Swifts life is one of the central tensions that makes this film just interesting enough to keep you engaged, if not enraptured. There are plenty of behind the scenes moments that will excite die-hard fans but the most personal and vulnerable issues, Swifts relationship with her new partner and sick mother, are skirted around. Fortunately there’s another relationship being examined here, a singer and her audience.

Taylor Swift tells us in her own words that she has always craved positive reinforcement, and we are shown many events in her life where the slightest negative jab has sent her spiraling into self-doubt, even self-loathing. A relatable idea for most of us, though not in the same order of magnitude as someone of Swifts outsized public figure. As she matures that public figure, the presentable box she has locked herself in begins to get tested by her desire to speak out politically and make a wider impact on the world.

The choice of whether or not to risk public criticism by putting more of her-self on display is a real one, the personal costs of which are effectively communicated, which matters because the ultimate statement she winds up making isn’t all that radical. Before watching the film I don’t think I would have called Swift brave for any of her recent public comments, but the tidal wave of feedback she gets for doing just about anything seems genuinely paralyzing. It’s a miracle she still does anything at all given she could just retreat into obscurity with her millions of dollars.           

    

The tension between Swift trying to find a more personal voice and the relatively stand-off nature of the documentary shows she still has some growing to do; the whole thing still comes across as more promotional item than genuine confession. However I am left wondering if I have any right to demand she open up at all. Is it realistic for us to expect the very rich and famous to be real people just like us, or does the lopsided relationship we have with them necessitate some distance. Taylor Swift is still trying to figure that out.