A brutally honest review of Taylor Swift's new movie.

It's easy to be cynical about the release of Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl.

The film, which was released in cinemas for just one weekend to celebrate the release of her new album The Life of a Showgirl, when laid bare, is not the type of project that should have been up on the big screen.

The 89-minute film plays the Taylor Swift-directed music video for 'The Fate of Ophelia' not once but twice during that runtime, and the rest of the cinematic experience is mostly made up of the lyric videos for the 12 tracks on the new album. A project any other artist would have just popped up on their YouTube channel and called it a day.

Yet Swift is not any other artist.

Over her decades-long career, she has forged a fan base willing to travel the world for her, cry for her, fight for her, and even go into debt for her just for the chance to see her live.

So, while a cinematic release for only the most die-hard of fans might seem excessive, when those fans range in the dedicated thousands, the rationale behind the release makes complete sense. A treat for Swift fans who would have been looking for a space to gather and celebrate her new songs.

The film is peppered with behind-the-scenes snippets that chronicle the making of 'The Fate of Ophelia' music video, and while these scenes offer up no scandal, intrigue, or real Easter eggs for fans to uncover, they are among the most entertaining moments in the film.

I gladly would have watched a whole movie dedicated to this process, to see how Swift explains her vision on set, how the dancers move to songs they cannot hear (the new music was under such lock and key that not even the people involved in the video were allowed to hear it). Or, see how Swift's team, including famed choreographer Mandy Moore, mould and reshape her ideas as they bring them to life.

Just as with any other self-directed release, Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl does not give us a clear view of who she really is, but more so the person she wants the world to see.

Which sometimes can be just as interesting.

There's a scene where Swift is overcome with glee and disbelief that her collaborators might allow a loaf of her homemade sourdough bread to appear in the video. She celebrates like an intern whose pitch made it into the final client presentation, rather than the boss who always has the final say.

In other scenes, she is seen giving clear and unquestionable instructions to the entire cast and crew of the video, making decrees about everything from the lighting to the props, sets, and movements. As both the musician and the director of the project, it's clear that there's no element of this project that is not under her complete control.

In these scenes, she is both sweetly relatable and also utterly otherworldly, which, to be fair, has always been the Taylor Swift story.

Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl is in cinemas now. Image: Taylor Swift.

When I settled down in the cinema on Saturday morning to watch the film, I had yet to listen to any of the songs from The Life of a Showgirl. I thought it would be more interesting to experience the music for the first time through the context of the film, and it turned out to be an experience-saving call.

So much of the film is made up of the lyrics of the songs appearing on the screen, and if you've heard them before, and you're not a die-hard Swiftie who is just excited to be in the room to support an artist they love, this viewing experience might fall flat.

It's also important to note that it was the more sanitised, PG versions of the songs that were played during the film, no doubt due to the number of tiny Swift fans who would be escorted by their parents to the cinema. So instead of lines like 'open my thighs' flashing across the screen, 'open my skies' was the line that movie-goers were treated to.

What really was worth the price of the movie ticket, I have to say, were the short snippets of Swift explaining her thought process behind each song before the lyric video played.

She delivered these short explainers perched on a director's chair, clad in a red T-shirt that complemented the opulent set behind her. A set that was carefully pulled aside just a little so you could see the real, creative, and chaotic backstage area behind her, a reminder to the audience that they were being offered a true glimpse of her behind-the-scenes world.

Some of these explainers were intended as more of a little wink and an in-joke to the audience, like when she explained, quickly and with a straight face, that her song 'Wood' is about 'black cats and superstitions', when it's actually about how great sex with her fiancé Travis Kelce is.

While others offered more of a glimpse into her highly dissected life. Before the lyric video for 'Cancelled' played, Swift talked about knowing what it's like to be publicly torn apart after a perceived misstep, and said she's become the first person her famous friends call as they hear the cancelled bell toll for them.

She said she replies with 'yes I know, it will be ok, do you want to go for lunch?' before the 'Cancelled' lyrics began to move across the screen and the words 'Good thing I like my friends cancelled. I like 'em cloaked in Gucci and in scandal' appeared.

Perhaps the most alluring song explainer from Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl belongs to the song 'Actually Romantic', the song that is thought to be a response to Charli XCX.

In this intro, Swift doesn't name any names (no one expected her to), and instead says the song is "a love letter to someone who hates you. Sometimes you don't know that you are a part of someone else's story, but you are. I've just started to be like, 'Oh my God… you did so much with this… it's flattering. I don't hate you and I don't think about this, but thank you for all the effort, honestly.

"Wow," she continued. "That is very sweet of you to think about me this much, even if it's negative. Like, in my industry, attention is affection, and you've given me a whole lot of it, so…".

She then proceeded to blow a kiss directly to the camera, a kiss that felt like it sailed over the heads of everyone in the cinema and smack into the faces of the many people who had wronged her.

This song explainer from Swift is one of the most interesting parts of the film, and not just because it is tinged with scandal.

There's been a slowly accelerating outcry from a portion of her fandom and critics who say that Taylor Swift needs to let things go. That she is now in such an immense position of wealth, privilege, and power that the amount of time she spends stewing over slights, feuds, and betrayals is eye-roll-inducing.

Yet it's actually the most believable and relatable thing about her.

Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl. Image: Taylor Swift.

I find it completely acceptable that even with this amount of success, Swift still cares deeply about what people say and think about her. That not even a stadium of screaming fans can take away the feeling of injustice that would hit you when someone in your life has wronged you, and you think the world has been fed a lie about your character.

We all live through these moments on a smaller scale, that feeling of bitter anger in your chest that keeps you awake at night when someone has wronged you, and you cannot see a way to make it right. It's something that Swift would feel even more intensely being on a global stage, and so it's only truthful that these feelings weave their way into the lyrics of her songs.

It's moments like these that change my mind about Swift, I find her infinitely more interesting when she presents as a real person, rather than a fictional character who powers down when she's not on stage.

Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl is not overly impressive, but the fandom she has built continues to be, and for die-hard fans, that fact alone makes this film worth watching.

Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl is in cinemas now for a limited time.

Laura Brodnik is Mamamia's Head of Entertainment and host of The Spill podcast. You can follow her on Instagram here for more entertainment news and recommendations.

Feature Image: Instagram/taylorswift.