All Too Well: The Short Film (A Short Review)

I was hoping to find something perfect to write about. Something that gives you an idea of who I am but also an idea of what I like and how much a good film can excite me. And yes, I’m late to the party but I’ve had a long few weeks and that’s a good enough excuse for me. 

I’ve always wanted to write about Taylor Swift’s music because I’ve been listening to it for a pretty long time now but I don’t think I fully appreciated it until I listened to ‘folklore’ on repeat. The entire album is a masterpiece and I’m still not over it. If you’re interested, my top 5 songs are probably: seven, hoax, august, exile and betty. And maybe someday I’ll write about it but today is not about that. No, today is about more pressing matters. 

All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)

This short film made me feel something and there didn’t seem to be any other place to start. It’s essentially a long music video but it tells its simple story in a beautifully compelling way, with Taylor Swift’s familiar, comforting vocals driving the whole thing. 

All Too Well is the quintessential Taylor Swift track. It’s not one I was very familiar with but it still feels nostalgic. It has all the elements but the great writing is right at the forefront, assisted by a catchy guitar tune that reminds you of the 2010s. 

The song tells a story and it doesn’t need a video to help you visualise anything but the visuals make it that much sweeter, but also that much more heartbreaking. The performances from Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien is what makes the film. 

Sink has the wide eyed wonder of someone who’s young and in love in the beginning of the film, essential for the rest of it to work. She brings a lot of emotion to her performance. It’s easy to empathize with her and even without a lot of dialogue she delivers a performance that makes the character easy to relate to and in turn makes the song mean more. 

However, the star of the show is Taylor Swift. Her storytelling paints a vivid picture, it makes you feel and it makes you feel young and naive again, even without the nostalgia, there’s a lot to love here. And knowing how her writing has evolved over the years only made me appreciate the simplicity of this song, and makes me appreciate the punch it packs, a little more. 

Yeah, basically I could have watched an hour and a half of this and still enjoyed it. But what a lovely short film. 

Conclusion

It’s like 15 mins long, go watch it, it’s on YouTube. I’m not going to sell it any harder. I only wanted to write this because I had thoughts and nostalgia for a song I never listened to when it first came out.