Ego extraordinaire Kanye West leaves you no room to wonder what's up his sleeve. Ever. The man's life is a virtual one-sided chat room, littering the Twitterverse with his every thought, whim and idea, whether safe for public consumption or not.
So color absolutely no one surprised that Kanye's new video for his song, "Runaway," is a cornucopia of Kanye, Kanye, and more Kanye. If you call a 40-minute art film a "video," that is.
After all, it is a music video about his song. What else would it be about?
Now you're thinking like Kanye West.
The, um, mini-movie (let's be honest) will debut on Saturday at 7 p.m. And you, adoring fan, can catch the entire spectacle on MTV, BET, MTV.com, BET.com and VH1.com.
The film, according to Kanye, was made from the perspective of his 5-year-old self, back when he "wasn't told what to like, and wasn't told what not to like." Cyber buzz on the interwebs centers the flick's plot around an ethereal love story between a man and a beautiful phoenix. We imagine Kanye must've been just as vibrant a child as he is an adult.
It may not make much sense to the naked eye, but you know you'll be clamoring to watch it, right along with the rest of the world.
Does it deserve the comparisons being made to Michael Jackson's epic "Thriller" production? We're not sure.
But we won't write off Mr. West just yet. 'Cause where there's a Kanye, there's always a way. And probably a Kardashian.
Jaeden Martell, Rachel Zegler, and Julian Dennison in Y2K.
Movies that rely on nostalgia can be successful if they’re timed right. Generally, 25-30 years seems about the right amount of time to try to take advantage of people’s fond feelings for a certain era, which is why movies/TV shows about the ‘80s have been prevalent for much of the 21st century, and ‘90s-set films started to pop up in the last 10 years.
Y2K, a horror comedy that plays on the fears of technological mayhem many people thought would happen at the turn of the century, is right on the cusp of that rule, taking place 24 years after its timeline. It centers on two teenage boys, Eli (Jaeden Martell) and Danny (Julian Dennison), who are opposite in demeanor but have an unshakeable bond. Eli likes a popular girl, Laura (Rachel Zegler), and Danny convinces him to crash a New Year’s Eve party where she’ll be.
As the clock strikes midnight and the year moves from 1999 to 2000, everything that uses an electrical current goes haywire, with many of them combining forces to attack the humans around them. Eli and Danny find themselves on the run with Laura, as well as two stoners, Ash (Lachlan Watson) and CJ (Daniel Zolghadri), with each of them trying to use their unique skillset to help defeat a growing robot army.
Directed by Kyle Mooney and written by Mooney and Evan Winter, the film lands some solid jokes about the era in its opening 20 minutes or so, whether it’s the extreme slowness of dial-up internet, the goofy user names from AOL Messenger, or the various high school cliques of the time. However, many of them seem to echo ones told in 1999’s American Pie, a weird kind of art-imitating-art moment instead of commenting on real life.
The jolt of the machines attacking partygoers seems to promise a fun — if bloody — romp, but Mooney and Winter don’t seem to know where to take the story. They establish the computer bona fides of Eli and Laura early on, but when it comes time for them to put their talents in action, it feels like two actors going through the motions instead of real people who know what they’re doing. Almost none of the characters are believable or entertaining, and the few that rise above are dispatched way too early.
And because the filmmakers don’t make you care about the main group, nothing they face is that interesting, either. The villainous robots are made up of a bunch of disparate parts, which would seem to offer the opportunity for funny sight gags. Mooney and his team fumble most of their chances, though, leaving that side of the story stuck in limbo where it’s not absurd enough to be hilarious or scary enough to really count as horror.
Martell, Dennison, and Zegler are each rising stars who have their individual charms, but only Dennison is able to make much of an impact. Zegler, who starred in West Side Story and will soon be Snow White, is especially misused. They try to shoehorn in a cameo by Limp Biskit lead singer Fred Durst, but his appearance makes little sense and adds almost nothing to the story.
Filmmakers who want to mine nostalgia, especially in a comedy, need to really commit to the bit instead of throwing in a few references and needle drops. Mooney, who’s making his directorial debut, demonstrates little feel for timing, and so most of the film is like a car spinning its wheels, going nowhere.
