Kanye West does "Art"!

I didn’t think I’d ever be inspired to write a review of a music video, but Kanye West’s “Runaway” (a 34:32 minute ‘film’ directed by and starring the man himself) was so rich in failures that I really had to put it down. Interestingly, I started out liking it, but the more I watch or think about it, the more I hate this awful thing. 

A delicious flow diagram synopsis of the video, for those who’ve not had the dubious pleasure of watching it:

• Kanye West runs along a road.
• Wow! Explosion! But wait; something’s falling out of that fire in the sky. It’s a “phoenix” (note: phoenix can be read as “hot girl covered in feathers”.)
• Kanye rescues fallen phoenix and takes her to his house, the garden of which seems to be infested with Disney woodland creatures.
• Heart-warming scene as Kanye and Miss Phoenix bond, he plays with his MPC 2000XL sampler (product placement, anyone?) and teaches her to dance/gyrate/twitch etc.
• Small child runs with a flare.
• Wow! Fireworks! And a big ol’ Michel Jackson parade, with red-clad Klansfolk and a marching band. Miss Phoenix seems very pleased with Kanye’s choice of first date.
• Miss P. is just as impressed with the second date, hanging out with his boring mates, watching the ballet, until...
• Eating a bland dinner of chicken, bread – SHOCK! – they serve phoenix! Miss Phoenix doesn’t like cannibalism, apparently.
• They both have time alone to reflect on this shitty date, have a chat on a hill about the birth and death of originality, and Miss Phoenix casually mentions that she’ll be dying soon.
• Obviously they have goodbye sex.
• Wow! Explosion!
• The next day, she’s gone to kill herself and Kanye does a bit of running through woods .
• Oh wow! She’s on fire. Miss Phoenix flaps around looking for Kanye for a while and then shoots off.
• Back to the beginning where Kanye is running along a road. END.
  

So where to begin?! 

I am not going to write about the music. Actually, I really love a lot of the music throughout this video. “Lost in the World” is a scrumptious piece of music, and “Gorgeous” was a nice surprise. So the music aside, let’s explore this little world Director West has created.

The video opens with an excerpt from Mozart’s unfinished “Requiem”, and this to me sums up the whole extravaganza perfectly: it’s trying to be something it’s not. The whole video viewed like a high school film project, with the depth of a bathtub and a budget bigger than the Atlantic. 

With enough in-references to make even the most cultured folk gag on their Kubrick, this video is difficult to watch without feeling a little sorry for Kanye. He just seems desperate to prove that he’s different, that he’s artsy, that he thinks about stuff, dad!

The awkward cuts between songs are not disguised or remedied but are left there, and dragged out. He uses the age-old technique of leaving enormous, loaded silences, which are very obviously loaded with absolutely nothing. About a third of the film consists of a variety of explosions in slow motion, and people looking vacantly at things. In short, it’s trying very hard to allude to having some deep, poignancy when it really has nothing to say. 

It’s sad that Kanye feels like his work is lacking, and needs to be so stuffed, because there are some stunning moments in this video. The ballet scene, which features dancers from The National Theatre, works so well with the music; it’s a shame that it was bracketed by some of the most atrocious dialogue imaginable.

On the topic of dialogue, let me sample some:

“Anything that is different you try to change, you try to tear it down. You rip the wings off the phoenix and they turn to stone. And if I don’t burn, I will turn to stone”.

I shouldn’t have to point out that the entirety of this moving conversation is totally out of context from the rest of the video, is appallingly performed and—what was that? Oh yes, it MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE. I am compelled to point it out regardless, because I am still baffled by how shit it is. 

So what was good about this half hour of gut-knotting pretention? The makeup, for one. The design was stunning, and implemented well (aside from one exceptional moment when Miss Phoenix shoots into the fire, and it looks like a still from a b-grade computer game). I was also entranced by Miss Phoenix’s dodgy breast implants; the fact that one is distinctly higher than the other. Actually, now that I mention them (her breasts, that is) I am glad that when she set on fire, they gave her a metal breast plate but no other armour. Obviously they realised that her breasts were the most dangerously flammable part of her.

My conclusion? The album is great, the ballet scene, perfect, and the rest of it? A desperate cry for approval by someone who doesn’t seem to realise that he’s pretty awesome without pretending to know things he doesn’t. And 34:32 minutes of pure bollocks.