If you were to show me the video for Sleigh Bells‘ new song, “I Can Only Stare,” and ask which acclaimed independent American filmmaker is the credited director, Alex Ross Perry would be somewhere on the list, but I can’t say with any certainty where he might land — not when I watched the video with his involvement (i.e. co-directing alongside the band’s guitarist, Derek Miller) in mind and found myself looking for many a commonality with the feature work that I admire. As shot by frequent collaborator Sean Price Williams, the piece contains those distinctly hazy-yet-lucid images from films such as Queen of Earth and Listen Up Philip, which is to say nothing of the plethora of contemplative close-ups and slow zooms. It’s not a defining work, but a fun, fitting entry into the oeuvre nevertheless.
While we wait for Golden Exits, Winnie the Pooh, and his adaptation of Don DeLillo’s The Names, watch the video below: