That crazy fucker really did it. David Fincher, one of our great working film auteurs, really made a short film where the Red Hot Chili Peppers are string puppets. Last month, we learned that Fincher was directing "Can't Stop," a new film from the Netflix animation anthology Love Death + Robots. (Fincher is one of the show's executive producers, and Deadpool director Tim Poole is the creator. This is the first time that Fincher has directed for the series.) The new season of Love Death + Robots is out now, and David Fincher's short really is just a marionette version of the Chili Peppers performing, as advertised. It's a truly surreal thing to witness.
In the "Can't Stop" short, David Fincher recreates an apparently-famous Red Hot Chili Peppers performance at Ireland's Slane Castle in 2003. In Fincher's version, the Chili Peppers are all puppets, and the people in the crowd are also puppets. "Can't Stop" is about five minutes long, and it really is just the puppet Chili Peppers playing the song of the title. In a way, it's the first Fincher-directed music video that we've gotten since he made Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z's "Suit & Tie" clip in 2013.
In Fincher's short, the Chili Peppers must not just be marionettes, since puppet Anthony Kiedis is able to move his face and sing the song, and the effects at work are truly impressive. Fincher also has a lot of fun with the ridiculous concept. Marionette girls flash Kiedis, for instance, and they have Barbie-doll boobs. Puppets hold up lighters, which isn't always a good idea for beings that exist on strings suspended from above. I don't want to spoil any of what happens beyond that. You can watch it on Netflix here, or you can check out a short clip below.
Wow, those puppets can really move. It's almost as if they're all hopped up on a groundbreaking new brand of concert-friendly canned coffee.
