External perfection ain't worth shit when you're hollow inside. And meticulous, fabricated art often can't come close to what the natural world can just do by doing what it does.
Just some of the themes in this latest stunner of a video from director AG Rojas for Florence + The Machine.
There's an organic and stately stillness to this new Florence + The Machine video that forces you to wait with bated breath as it develops roots and comes to artistic life.
Don't call it a comeback, but "Close Your Eyes (And Count To F**k)" marks the music video return of two of my faves: director AG Rojas and Rage Against The Machine frontman Zack De La Rocha. And it's one motherf**k of a return, presenting an epic and exhausting brawl between Cop and Kid that might not detonate on-screen, but could prove explosive as a nationwide conversation about police brutality rages on.
AG Rojas, director: "When Run The Jewels sent me this track, I knew we had the opportunity to create a film that means something. I felt a sense of responsibility to do just that. We had to exploit the lyrics and aggression and emotion of the track, and translate that into a film that would ignite a valuable and productive conversation about racially motivated violence in this country. It's provocative, and we all knew this, so we were tasked with making something that expressed the intensity of senseless violence without eclipsing our humanity. For me, it was important to write a story that didn’t paint a simplistic portrait of the characters of the Cop and Kid. They're not stereotypes. They're people - complex, real people and, as such, the power had to shift between them at certain points throughout the story. The film begins and it feels like they have been fighting for days, they’re exhausted, not a single punch is thrown, their violence is communicated through clumsy, raw emotion. They've already fought their way past their judgments and learned hatred toward one another. Our goal was to highlight the futility of the violence, not celebrate it."
Director AG Rojas has discovered another America... Focusing on towns and people and situations you'd likely rather ignore, but need to be seen. "I Am What I Am" is set in Taft, CA, which he previously introduced us to via the short film "Cody," coincidentally shot in the immediate wake of a school shooting and concurrently with this piece.
"I Am What I Am" stars Rory Culkin as a young man very much in need of transcendence. And he eventually achieves liftoff, but I don't know if it leads to a better place.
It's a powerful short film, even if it's likely a tough watch for most people, but one that needed to be seen.
Welcome to America. Land of guns, drugs, oil and booty, filled with geniuses, fools, dreamers, gamblers and daredevils of many myriad backgrounds and situations. Where birth and death, destruction and salvation happen every single day.
This epic production features content shot over a 20 day period spanning 15 states, with a specific focus on the poor places that normally get overlooked when you think of the rich wonders of the U.S.A.
We plan to dig into the MAINLINE a bit more down the road, but here's a good introduction. Directors AG Rojas and Vincent Haycock founded MAINLINE as a home for special projects.
Although the premise of "Lucifer moves to Hollywood and fits right in" sounds like a sitcom, directors AG Rojas and Vincent Haycock balance the flashes of humor here — I could see actor Brad Dourif's Louis Cypher as a Borscht Belt champion — with enough malice and mayhem (and mammaries) to push the boundaries of even Cable TV.
