Observer » music videos

R.E.M. Enlist Lindsay Lohan, James Franco For Music Video

Daniel D'Addario — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:25:12 -0400

The band R.E.M. broke up last fall, but are still spinning off singles from their final record--though they may not be interested in getting back together to shoot videos. What's a broken-up band to do? Well, there's always the people who'll show up for anything that seems arty and grants a paycheck.

James Franco has directed a music video for the band starring Lindsay Lohan, who poses in pin-up magazine style for photographer Terry Richardson, while the hoariest of L.A. cliches (a shot of the Chateau Marmont! a pile of Polaroids! the Hollywood Walk of Fame!) fade in and out. There's also a shot of Mr. Franco in drag.

Ms. Lohan is next to star in the film The Canyons written by Bret Easton Ellis, whose Less Than Zero taught James Franco everything--no, everything--he knows about Los Angeles.

Lana Del Rey Debuts Ten-Minute Music Video

Daniel D'Addario — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 11:14:53 -0400

It's astonishing people are still discussing Lady Gaga when Lana Del Rey exists; the controversial chanteuse today debuted a ten-minute video for her new song, "Ride," wherein she joins a biker gang, holds a gun to her head, and narrates a lengthy tale of a small-town singer finding newfound freedom: "It pushed me to a nomadic point of madness that both dazzled and dizzied me." By the end of the video she's rolling around in a cave in a fringed bikini top, declaring, "I believe in the country America used to be. I believe in the person I want to become." As a statement of purpose, it's absolutely, refreshingly meaningless, not purporting to make any statement beyond provocation; as a creation myth for whoever Lana Del Rey is, it's tremendously watchable. She strives for little more than that.

Hype Williams Has a Much-Hyped Comeback

Emily Witt — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:40:21 -0400

Williams.

Hype Williams, the director of Belly, and of many, many hip-hop videos, is having a comeback. Instead of engaging with any discussion of how Belly was "critically received" we'll just say that Nas's character presaged The Wire's D'Angelo Barksdale (his name was "Sincere"!), DMX and Method Man are really good actors and no director has such a knack for manipulating glossy surfaces, not even Michael Mann.

But speaking of Michael Mann! The new movie, Lust, is set in part in Miami and in part in New York and, according to Variety, the plot involves sexual blackmail. It's written by Joe Ezterhas, who also wrote Basic Instinct and Showgirls. So even if this movie totally sucks, it's going to be very shiny and tropical and filled with sex and violence.

Kind of like the first couple minutes of Belly, with its acapella version of that Soul II Soul song.

Oh, and this scene, with the befeathered femme fatale in Jamaica.

Rihanna Has Her ‘Erotica’ Moment [Watch]

Daniel D'Addario — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 15:55:21 -0400

It used to be that pop singers reinvented themselves with each album -- Madonna's Erotica phase, centered on black leather and campy sexuality, was centered around her promotion of the album of the same name, as well as a coffee-table book. It lasted for a while! No longer: Rihanna's new video, "S&M," is a departure from her last video, "What's My Name," itself a departure from its predecessor. Will there be any phases left for her to go through by the time her next album comes out?

Unlike the (relatively) realistic, charming collaboration with Drake that was "What's My Name," Rihanna decided it was time to release a music video in which she struts in thigh-highs, a leather cap, and little else, snapping a pink bullwhip and strewing both candy hearts and signifiers everywhere. It's hard to tell what Rihanna herself is setting out to do: parts of the video play as parody of "sexy" videos (she eats a banana languorously) and parts seem annoyingly self-serious (she wears a dress covered in fake newspaper headlines while ball-gagged reporters smother her in cellophane. Huh!).

Then again, Rihanna has always been a singles artist, not a woman who can sell albums. To get another #1 record and stay viable, she's going to have to grab the attention even of those who only watch a music video when it's a Gaga-style spectacular. But now that she's walked Perez Hilton on a leash (really), how can she top this? May we suggest the shock of the demure?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdS6HFQ_LUc

ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_