Renaissance: a Film by Beyoncé review – sparkling, party vibe with backstage insights | Beyoncé
This year will go down in cinema history for Barbenheimer but 2023 has also been the year of “Tayloncé”. Just as Barbie and Oppenheimer joined forces to rejuvenate cinema, so Taylor Swift and Beyoncé have cemented their status as joint queens of pop this year. Both singers inspire fanatical devotion, both embarked on stadium tours so huge they warped local economies, and both are closing out 2023 with a movie. Taylor Swift: the Eras Tour became the highest grossing concert movie of all time in October; now comes Queen Bey’s Renaissance movie, doubtless looking to do similar wide-release box office. To be clear, there’s no rivalry here: Beyoncé attended Swift’s LA premiere in October; On Thursday night Swift returned the favour at Renaissance’s London premiere. Where Swift’s movie faithfully replicated the live experience, Renaissance gives us the “making of” as much as the performance. Swift gives us the gliding swan; Beyoncé shows us the legs kicking beneath the waterline as well. It’s arguably a braver move: as with her 2019 movie Homecoming, this works well …