A Spike Jonze/Arcade Fire collaboration, "The Suburbs"

Saw this a while ago. Been meaning to share it.

Here's what I found on the video (some details from Win Butler, Arcade Fire's lead):

“It’s not a video. It’s a short film; we’re still working on it. It’s like a science-fiction B-movie companion piece for the record. Basically, we played Spike some music from the album and the first images that came to his mind had the same feeling as this idea for a science fiction film I had when I was younger. My brother and I and Spike wrote it together, which was really fun– it was like total amateur hour. We shot it in Austin and a lot of kids are in the film, and it was great just hanging out with these 15-year-olds for a week and writing down all the funny things they said. It was cool to revert to being a 15-year-old for a little while."

Although it is set in Austin and seemingly reflects the suburban life for American youth, I think the themes are universal. The video reminds me of when I used to ride bicycles around my suburb with neighbours who lived nearby and not so nearby. We would race each other to the vandalised park, play rubberband wars, chase each other up to the shops where we would buy shandy beer (it was all so exhilarating). We'd pick up a couple of cap guns and have fights in our front lawns. This video brings me back to these feelings of being alive and free - my suburb was my turf, and nothing could stop me.

Spike Jonze's latest short film, "I'm Here"

Just yesterday, Spike Jonze in collaboration with Absolut released a short film of a love story between two robots, I'm Here. There short can be found at its official site here, which only allowed a certain number of viewers access to the film every few hours. Disgruntled by this, I waited a whole day for Youtube to pick it up and found the entire film in three parts, as I've shared below. It won't be long before they remove it due to copyright, I'm sure. Catch it while you can. Otherwise, queue up at the film's official site.

My comments about the film are below the three Youtube links.

I hadn't heard about this film until I signed myself up for an account on The Auteurs and stumbled across this film's info page by accident. The website for which the film can be officially viewed at only seemed to give viewers access to the film on a first come first serve basis, and I was just unlucky enough to keep missing out every 2-3 hours. Soon enough, I managed to find the entire film on Youtube and happily watched the film in full quality.

I really, really loved it. To me, this film further defines Spike Jonze as a filmmaker and auteur. The film's style is distinctly his with the urban landscape and setting of the story, and simply just the overall visual look of the film reeks of Jonze. I felt that it was very close to his recent film Where The Wild Things Are, and I really like that about his style. It seems like he is getting more and more creative with his visual style, and I am loving it.

I rated this 9/10.

A Semi-Retrospective: Spike Jonze

For my birthday, Kieran bought me Spike Jonze themed presents, including Volume 1 of the Directors Label series - the Spike Jonze collection. It includes a selection of his music videos, interviews, audio commentaries, rarities, documentaries and shorts. I was going through it yesterday and decided to also put on Being John Malkovich as a way to start my Spike Jonze retrospective. Having already seen Where The Wild Things Are, I thought I'd start some sort of a marathon of his work to see what he has to offer.

I think as a music video director, Jonze is highly versatile in his style. I felt that there was no definitive style I could put his name to. On one hand, you have the very elaborately choreographed video of Fatboy Slim's Weapon Of Choice (an old favourite of mine, too), featuring Christopher Walken; and on the other hand, you have the very simple, long shot music video of Weezer's Undone (The Sweater Song). However, I do believe that there is a distinct 'urban' feeling behind his videos. It could just be the type of music he creates videos for, or perhaps something deeper than that.

In terms of film, I do believe the partnership he has with Charlie Kaufman is one to be reckoned with. Being John Malkovich, to me, was similar to that of Michel Gondry's work - just brought down to a lower level of intensity compared to Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind or The Science of Sleep. Kaufman comes back to work with Jonze in Adaptation, a film I haven't seen yet, but will do in due time when I get my hands on the DVD.

Ten years later, we see Jonze taking on Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are. The film bore some similarities to Jonze's unidentifiable style through his music videos, yet it's so different to Being John Malkovich or anything else that he's ever done (not including Adaptation since I haven't see it yet). And I guess that's what I'm beginning to love about Spike Jonze. I love his ability to change his styles and experiment with different ways of telling a story, while keeping the 'urban' aspect throughout - some more subtle than others.

I will keep following and watching Jonze's films till I find that definitive style, and until then, I'm going to explore the Jonze-Kaufman/Gondry-Kaufman partnerships, and snuff out the greatness behind Charlie Kaufman.

Till next time.