Swift has clearly felt that pressure — to be young and relatable and relevant — throughout her career, but it’s certainly not unique to her experience.

| Apr 7, 2022

I think there this movie has a lot of interesting things to say about fame, interesting things to say about how women are conditioned to be good and be nice and not make waves and get the approval of other people.

| Original Score: 8.5/10 | Mar 5, 2020

I came away with a whole new appreciation for one of the most famous people on the planet.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Mar 5, 2020

Miss Americana is about her breaking free of that 16-year-old "good girl" she was and becoming the multi-dimensional 30-year-old woman she is today.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 7, 2020

"Miss Americana" offers an effective backstage look at Taylor Swift that works best when the megastar opens up about her life and experiences in surprisingly candid ways.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 6, 2020

It's honestly challenging to relate to another human being whose candid conversations are recorded on her private jet... But the film does share a tenacious young talent with the world.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 5, 2020

Sometimes it's hard to watch, but more often it is endearing, giving viewers a better understanding of just how lonely it truly is at the top.

| Feb 3, 2020

What I appreciated about it, and what gave me a healthy respect for [Taylor Swift], is that she's somebody who was dismissed as lightweight and she's come into her own... You see her growing.

| Jan 31, 2020

Wherever one stands in regard to Swift's politics, that portion of the movie is what distinguishes Miss Americana from a host of other projects designed to pull back the curtain on the lives of the rich and famous.

| Jan 31, 2020

Here is the engine of Swift's narrative: Swift's desire to be liked colliding with people not liking her. It's the ultimate celebrity problem, but the doc is smart about injecting it with social meaning by making the case that it stems from gender.

| Jan 31, 2020

Although certainly an insightful study of the pop star's populated psyche, Miss Americana is more of a mid-album track than an anthem.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 31, 2020

Instead, what director Lana Wilson has created is a portrait of someone who is still intensely alone and vulnerable, despite being one of the most successful artists in the world.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 31, 2020

Miss Americana is as insightful a pop artist documentary as you could hope for, but by keeping some moments private, Swift reminds us that we'll never know the whole story. And really, what gives us the right to?

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 31, 2020

"Miss Americana" is 85 minutes of translucence with Taylor Swift. There's more in it - and more to it - than you usually get with these pop superstar portraits.

| Jan 30, 2020

Whether this book is really open, and whether it reveals the "real" Taylor Swift or not, Miss Americana is convincing, positive, and entrancing nonetheless.

| Original Score: B | Jan 29, 2020

With a more elegant, purposeful structure or at least more time to explore her toughest choices, Miss Americana might have given fans a satisfying portrait of the real Taylor Swift. As is, it's more like a sketch.

| Jan 28, 2020

Essentially a movie about something that had been studiously avoided for the first several years of Swift's wildly successful career: politics.

| Jan 28, 2020

The power of "Miss Americana" is in watching someone who stands astride the world gradually realize that her art is the only thing that she can control.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 27, 2020

Swift makes for a fascinating documentary subject, both generous and withholding, frank and elusive... as a standalone illustration, Miss Americana has too much blank space, voids in its portraiture that are all too quickly filled in with doubt.

| Jan 27, 2020

Whether or not you're a fan of Swift at the start of the film, you're likely to be by the end.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 25, 2020