The Tree Paine Fan’s Guide to the Eras Tour Documentary
My Eras-era.
Like Aaron Sorkin stepping through the doors of 1OAK, I found my seat in a subterranean movie theater at a Thursday matinee of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour with a simple mission: “I just needed to see what went on there.”
On the subject of Taylor Swift: yes, sure, fine! On the subject of Tree Paine, her crimson-haired publicist: we are one nation under not God, but Her Majesty Treyvadius Paine! Tree Paine is everywhere and nowhere. Tree Paine is present and absent. Tree Paine is sending you an email. Tree Paine is reading your tweets. Tree Paine will track you down, step by step from town to town. If you have not received an email with a correction from Tree Paine, did you even work in media between the years of old Gawker and new? Amy Adams will win an Oscar for the Tree Paine biopic and not a moment before!
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
The Eras Tour does not have much to offer in the Tree Paine department. I found this out the hard way (watching the entire movie, waiting for a Tree Paine sighting every moment). How disappointing, as Tree Paine (along with “seven” and “Dress” and “Call It What You Want”) was the primary reason I brought my notebook and my leftover-from-Halloween Ring Pop to the Williamsburg Cinema. There was no “seven,” no “Dress,” no “Call It What You Want.” There was one prominent red-head dancer with one notable dance number (the main character from the Grey Gardens-y song off Folklore).
But it’s an orderly two hours and 45 minutes. My dream setlist is all Reputation, Folklore, Midnights; Lover announces itself with “Cruel Summer” and makes “Lover” feel sensual and sentimental in equal measure. (And where is the “he’s lame but that’s my man” anthem “False God??”) Reputation was zippily edited but ultimately underwhelmed — the setlist’s focus on
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Hung Up to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.