The 5 Best Videos Of The Week
It’s not a music video, obviously, but the new movie Baby Driver might be one of the all-time greatest feats in music-video directing. Edgar Wright sets all his scenes — the car chases, the foot chase, the romantic interludes, the tense pre-heist discussions, the bits where it’s just Ansel Elgort walking down the street — to an impeccably curated playlist of old pop and funk songs. And he chops them up so that all the cuts are on the beat, which means the whole thing plays out as a dizzy musical fantasia. I seriously can’t say enough good things about it. Go see it this weekend if you haven’t. This week’s picks are below.
5. Vince Staples – “Rain Come Down” (Feat. Ty Dolla $ign) (Dir. David Helman)
If Vince Staples gotta artily promote Sprite, he’s gonna make it look sexy.
4. Alex Cameron – “Candy May” (Dir Meghan McGarry)
If Alex Cameron gotta be a charmingly grimy Las Vegas drifter, he’s gonna make it look sexy.
3. The Killers – “The Man” (Dir. Tim Mattia)
If Brandon Flowers gotta interrogate the tropes of American masculinity, he’s gonna make it look sexy.
2. Moses Sumney – “Doomed” (Dir. Allie Avital)
If Moses Sumney gotta make a tragically resonant visual metaphor about black American isolation, he’s gonna make it look sexy.
1. Kendrick Lamar – “ELEMENT.” (Dir. Jonas Lindstroem & The Little Homies)
You could take a screenshot of any random frame from this motherfucker, print it out, and hang it on a museum wall. At this point, Kendrick Lamar is our Michael Jackson, at least in music-video terms. Every music video’s release is an event, and every music video is a masterpiece. Also: He made it look sexy.