Miss Americana
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Miss Americana
Netflix poster
Directed by Lana Wilson
Morgan Neville
Produced by
Caitrin Rogers
Christine O'Malley
Starring Taylor Swift
Cinematography Emily Topper
Edited by Paul Marchand
Greg O'Toole
Lee Rosch
Lindsay Utz
Jason Zeldes
Music by Taylor Swift
Alex Somers
Production Tremolo Productions
company
Distributed by Netflix
Release date January 23, 2020 (Sundance)
January 31, 2020 (United States)
Running time 85 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Miss Americana (also known as Taylor Swift: Miss Americana) is a 2020
American documentary film directed by Lana Wilson, that follows American singer-
songwriter Taylor Swift and her life over the course of several years of her career. It was
released on Netflix and in select theaters on January 31, 2020. The film is titled after
Swift's 2019 protest song, "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince".
Miss Americana has been described as an unvarnished and emotionally revealing look
at Swift, during a metamorphic phase in her life, as she learns to accept her role as not
only a singer-songwriter and entertainer, but as an influential woman "harnessing the
full power of her voice". The film is set in the time period spanning from
Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour (2018) to the release roll-out of her seventh studio
album Lover (2019), dotted with flashback clips portraying several undisclosed events of
Swift's life and career.
The film premiered at the opening night of 2020 Sundance Film Festival on January 23,
2020, to critical acclaim centering on its intimacy and vulnerability. It also became the
highest-rated Netflix-original biographical documentary by a recording artist
in IMDb history. Accompanying the film's release, "Only the Young", a song by Swift
featured in the end credits, was released as a promotional single. The film was selected
by the National Board of Review as one of the five best documentaries of 2020.
Publications have named Miss Americana amongst the best Netflix films and
biographical documentaries.
Contents
1Synopsis
2Cast
3Background
4Promotion
5Music
6Critical reception
7Accolades
o 7.1Awards and nominations
o 7.2Lists
8Impact
o 8.1Mental health discourse
o 8.2Apologies from past critics
o 8.3Popular culture
o 8.4Politics
8.4.1Biden/Harris campaign
8.4.2Criticism of Marsha Blackburn
9See also
10References
11External links
Synopsis[edit]
Miss Americana follows Swift during a transitional phase in her career, as she wraps up
her 2018 Reputation Stadium Tour and began creating her 2019 album Lover, while
covering several years of her life through a biographical compilation of interviews,
flashbacks, studio footage, home videos, cellphone videos and concert recordings. It
focuses on sensitive subjects that Swift often avoided in interviews, such as her past
battle with body dysmorphia and eating disorder, her mother's cancer diagnosis,
the toxic internet culture and media scrutiny she faces, her sexual assault trial, and
decision to go public with her political views, including LGBTQ+ allyship.[1][2][3]
Netflix described the film as a "raw and emotionally revealing look" at Swift "during a
transformational period in her life as she learns to embrace her role not only as a
songwriter and performer, but as a woman harnessing the full power of her voice".
[4]
The Sundance Institute outlined: "Director Lana Wilson offers a multifaceted window
into Swift, her creative process, and her singular experience of being one of the
brightest lights on the world's global stage. Showcasing Swift's trademark vulnerability
and her fierce intelligence and wit, Wilson captures moments both tender and
exhilarating as the superstar embarks on the latest chapter of her already extraordinary
career."[5]
Cast[edit]
Taylor Swift
Andrea Swift, mother
Scott Swift, father
Abigail Anderson Lucier, friend
Tree Paine, publicist
Robert G. Allen, manager
Joe Alwyn, actor and boyfriend
Jack Antonoff, record producer
Joel Little, record producer
Max Martin, record producer
Dave Meyers, music video director
Brendon Urie, musician
Todrick Hall, musician
Paul Sidoti, guitarist
Kamilah Marshall, singer
Melanie Nyema, singer
Additionally, the archive footages used in the documentary feature record
producer Calvin Harris, singers Beyoncé, P!nk, Harry Styles, Shakira and Lenny Kravitz,
music bands Dixie Chicks and Earth Wind & Fire, models Karlie Kloss and Kim
Kardashian, rapper Kanye West, US politicians Marsha Blackburn and Donald Trump,
actors Taylor Lautner and Tom Hiddleston, drag queens Jade Jolie and Riley Knoxx,
television personalities Barbara Walters, Dan Harris, David Letterman, Erin
Robinson, Graham Norton, Hoda Kotb, Jedediah Bila, Jenny Johnson, Jimmy
Fallon, JuJu Chang, Nancy O'Dell, Nikki Glaser, Phil McGraw, Sara Haines, Stephen
Colbert, Sunny Hostin, Whoopi Goldberg, and the entire "Fab 5" cast of Queer
Eye: Antoni Porowski, Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Jonathan Van Ness and Tan
France.[6]
Background[edit]
Swift expressed her interest in making a documentary with Netflix following her 2018 special, Taylor Swift:
Reputation Stadium Tour.
Swift expressed interest in making a documentary with Netflix following the concert
film Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour, which premiered on the streaming platform
in December 2018.[7] She was provided with a list of potential directors, of which Wilson
was one. Wilson began filming at the end of the Reputation album and tour cycle, and
joined Swift for recording sessions of her subsequent album Lover.[8]
The title of the documentary is borrowed from "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak
Prince", the seventh track on Lover, in which Swift expressed her disillusionment over
the current state of United States politics.[7]
Swift revealed the documentary in November 2019, when she said the owner and
founder of her former label Big Machine Records, Scooter Braun and Scott
Borchetta respectively, blocked her from using older music and performance footage for
the documentary.[9] She added that the documentary does not mention Braun, Borchetta,
or Big Machine.[10] Big Machine denied the accusations in a statement. [11] In response, a
representative for Swift published an email from a Big Machine executive refusing to
issue licences in connection to the documentary.[12] In December, Variety reported Big
Machine had cleared the use of Swift's older material for the film. [1]
Needing to speak up about beliefs I'd always had, because it felt like an opportunity to
shed light on what those trials are like. I experienced it as a person with extreme
privilege, so I can only imagine what it's like when you don't have that. And I think one
theme that ended up emerging in the film [Miss Americana] is what happens when you
are not just a people pleaser but someone who's always been respectful of authority
figures, doing what you were supposed to do, being polite at all costs. I still think it's
important to be polite, but not at all costs. Not when you're being pushed beyond your
limits, and not when people are walking all over you. I needed to get to a point where I
was ready, able and willing to call out bullshit rather than just smiling my way through it.
— Swift, "Taylor Swift: No Longer 'Polite at All Costs'", Variety[7]
