En Miss American, the first great Netflix documentary on Taylor Swift (the one with the songs of Reputationon does not count) and her very hard life behind the spotlight and Instagram, we can see the young woman cleaning her ears.
Knowing that the camera is in front of her, Taylor Swift grabs a cotton swab and rubbing it resolutely. This moment, with which we assume that the singer was trying to imprint some humanity and normalization to her status as a global goddess (valued at 360 million net worth), is the most transgressive and revealing of Miss americana.
Premiered yesterday on Netflix, Miss americana It is an official documentary to the core, with the soul of an advertising spot and an hour and a half in length.
Miss Americana: A Dream PR Campaign
Miss americana It is not meant to be an exhaustive review of Taylor Swift's seven-album career. Rather, it focuses on a multi-year stage characterized by a certain decline in recognition and status. as a product, Miss americana it is a collective win-win of logical existence for four reasons:
Taylor Swift is the ideal leading lady
- Netflix a juicy number of viewers and an instant return on investment are assured. 90 minutes of home recordings and news clippings take a small toll. Although it does not belong to the fashionable genre (that of serialized documentaries such as Don't fuck with cats), Miss americana It is a guarantee of hearing. In addition to the safe procession of the parishioners swiftian, Taylor Swift is an icon of the pop music industry, the LGBTI community, and postmodern culture as a whole. The young woman is a symbol of our times. In Postposmo Taylor Swift interests us as much as we care about all the inputs capable of giving a better understanding of the sociocultural context in which we live. The success, relevance, interest and talent of Taylor Swift are beyond doubt.
Taylor Swift's private life
- Young, beautiful and intimate. The promoters of Miss americana they have made sure that the documentary came duly wrapped in a patina revealing Taylor's intimacies and inner life to which many will succumb. Little does it matter the confirmation, after 15 or 20 minutes of playback, that it is a conscious and highly calculated intimacy. "It's four in the morning..." Swift tells his producer in a fragment in which his interest in making us part of the ineffable spirit of sacrifice that marks his life is clear. And so all the time.
Taylor Swiftmania isn't going to be there forever.
- Taylor Swift herself is the most interested in the success of the documentary. In a scenario where it is usual to shine for a couple of years and then disappear, Taylor Swift has been in the front row for too long. And she knows it. as well knows that her reign is coming to an end, just as the respective reigns of Shakira, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Rihanna came to an end. The recent hit of the movie Cats (in which Swift sings and acts) has shown that even she can err. Taylor Swift needs this documentary more than Netflix itself needs.
Sundance festival prestige
- In his ten years of visits to the Sundance festival, Techcrunch's Mathew Panzarino ensures never having seen a similar expectation for a documentary. Miss americana was the main event on the opening day of the festival indie by excellence. It looks like it's not just Swift in need of attention.
Is it worth watching Miss Americana?
The biggest sparks of interest that surface in Miss americana They are the involuntary. In the Taylor Swift universe, a non-Grammy Award nomination takes on the status of the death of a close and dear family member. In the Taylor Swift universe, to compose a song, all you need is a telephone, 15 minutes on the couch and a pianist at your service (and about whom you will not offer any information).
Total absence of other contemporary singers of Taylor Swift (Katy Perry type), total absence of sentimental partners (keys in the gestation of practically all of Swift's songs) and complete absence of any information that even comes close to generating a negative image of Taylor Swift.
Taylor Swift, naughty she, gets into politics
They really try to sell us that Taylor Swift doesn't care that her millionaire empire could collapse as happened to the Dixie Chicks when they criticized George W. Bush. Miss americana really tries to make us believe that Taylor Swift gets into politics because it has left the cone.
At a given moment of Miss americana an exciting cause-consequence relationship is established: after being sexually assaulted (a presenter touched her ass while they were taking a photo), Taylor Swift decided that she would never keep quiet about anything again. This position leads to her first public statement in the world of politics, in which she supports a Democratic senator from Tennessee and she openly criticizes Donald Trump.
«The next time I have the opportunity to change something, whatever it is, I better be clear about what I am going to defend and what I want to say»
Taylor Swift alluding to her sexual assault and her support for the Democratic Party
Only Taylor Swift rules in Taylor Swift
Everything Taylor Swift says and does responds to a roadmap orchestrated by herself and no one else. She would answer like no other, how she fights with her publicists, who are reluctant to get involved in politics because of the damage that this could do to her career. How rebellious and independent he is. Not a single mention of the apparatus (record company, agents, publicists, journalists, etc.) behind the phenomenon. We insist: not even the name of the producer we see throughout the documentary is said. She does it all.
No one stops Taylor. Just crazy Kanye West. And when this happens and the author of Jesus is King he decides to take away the microphone to claim that your award really deserved it Beyoncé, Taylor Swift's entire musical career and public image are teetering at the risk of total collapse. According Miss americana, Kanye West was about to end the career of Taylor Swift with that incident at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
The sacrificed life of Taylor Swift
the protagonist of Miss americana He has no hobbies beyond music. He doesn't know how to talk about anything else or dedicate time to anything else. The documentary sells us the image of a girl without friends who lives locked up in her house composing songs from the sofa to, from time to time, organize mass concerts with mom and then return to the life of sacrifice. Nothing is told us of the key responsibility of her mother in the making of the star.
Although the director of the documentary is Lana Wilson, the video seems to be signed by Taylor Swift herself. What Miss americana It is a fundamental part of the Swift SA 2020 business calendar, as evidenced by the merchandising section of its official website. They range from $18 phone cases to $75 hoodies.
The basic premise of Miss americana is that the Internet and the world are a little tired of the Taylor. But she's going to be putting out records until they let her. Despite having been nominated 31 times for the Grammys and having won 10 (the first at the age of 20), Taylor Swift says she feels little loved by the industry and the media that reduce her to a body and a smile.
«In a world where you shine for two years, I have reinvented myself 20 times. It's either that or stop working," says the singer near the end of the documentary. Stop making music and open spaces for new voices is something implantable. It's not going to be that Taylor starves us.