Shot in Los Angeles back in February, Joseph Khan's newest Eminem video finally gets released four months after an ostensibly complex editing process. The result is dark, atmospheric and without a doubt inspired by the work of great filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and David Lynch.
This blog is about music videos and not about music itself; but when the musical quality and textural richness of a song are culmulating like in "Space Bound", the expectations towards its music video adaptation start shifting into new, maybe somewhat inadequate areas.
After the huge success of their "Love The Way You Lie" video, Eminem and director Joseph Kahn re-team once again for the latest single off Shady's platinum hit record "Recovery".
Hiring Sasha Grey to play Eminem's counterpart is an interesting, yet foreseeable choice; the ex-pornstar is a very controversial person of enormous public interest, especially after her appearance on HBO's "Entourage". Much like Megan Fox in "Love the Way You Lie" she absolutely guarantees millions of youtube clicks.
The video tells the story of Eminem's different psychological entities; and even though its true meaning is left open for interpretation, the story works quite well. One may find himself re-watching the video a few times just to get a hold of some details and some feeling of what the whole video could be about. For some it will be frustrating to realize that there isn't actually any detectable solution to the narrated riddle, but others will rejoice in the fact that this is just a glimpse of Eminem's tortured soul and a glance at his his messed-up love life. Maybe it's all just a marketing stunt, maybe it's sheer honesty. It's always the same question with Eminem, who has been sharing his most intimate feelings and experiences with his worldwide audience ever since the start of his career.
The technical similarities between Joseph Khan's next to last video "Love The Way You Lie" are obvious: For example the performance is shot against a massive backlight that gives Eminem's great ability to perform in front of the camera a strong visual appeal.
The overall visual style is obviously inspired by David Lynch hors d'oeuvres like "The Lost Highway" or "Mulholland Drive". The the split screen idea of separating Eminem's personality, as well as rewinding the whole video in the end, could be interpreted as an homage to Christopher Nolan's "Memento" or even Michael Haneke's (original version of) "Funny Games".
The fact that music video directors let themselves be inspired by great filmmakers is nothing new and perfectly fine. This is one of the great qualities of this medium, to let you grow as a filmmaker, to allow you to experiment and to give you the opportunity to pay tribute to those who create the very fabric of dreams classic feature films are made of.
But, what's not ok, is to display a suicide in such a voyeuristic way as Khan and Eminem do in this video; as Slim Shady shoots himself in the head, splattering blood all over the bar. This scene's fabricators have clearly overstepped the borders of any responsible treatment that the topic of suicide would demand for. The so called "Werther"-effect, a scientificly proven fact that carelessly displayed suicides in media lead to imitation, is something that filmmakers must have in mind when they are dealing with the topic of suicidal behaviour in their work. And it is cleary very irresponsible to risk any attempt of emulation by heart-broken Eminem fans just to generate publicity and youtube views.
Rating (3/5)
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