If you were to believe the headlines, Spike Jonze’s new commercial for Kenzo perfumes is some daring, edgy, epoch-shattering, taboo-defying masterwork. Nofilmschool.com called it “as bold as it gets”, suggesting an all-round unfamiliarity with boldness of any sort.
In reality, the near-four minute slice of indulgence, starring Margaret Qualley as a socialite who ‘rebels’ in the most vacuously unshocking way imaginable, is as tedious and self-important as you could expect from a man – sorry, an ‘auteur – who spells Jones with a Z. It’s all packed with a brain-crushingly awful track by Sam Spiegel (Jonze’s brother – nothing like a bit of nepotism, eh?) and Ape Drums.
As a dance piece, this is passable enough; as a slice of edginess, it fails miserably; and as art, it is a non-starter. Are we so easily impressed and easily startled these days that something as unadventurous and empty as this will impress us? Sheesh. Check it out below: It’s not exactly Smack My Bitch Up, is is?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABz2m0olmPg
