She Knows – J. Cole

This video follows a day’s worth of events in the life of a teenage boy, Kyle, who grows up in a single afternoon after walking in on his mother having an affair. It’s one of my favourite videos because it fleshes out complex family dynamics and teenage psychological tension in this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it way, like you have to detect subtle expressions to get at what each person is really thinking. At the start we see Kyle sneaking money out of a drawer, so already, you get the sense that he’s a kid who keeps secrets. That suspicion gets confirmed when he skips school with his best friend to smoke, drink, and skateboard, all in weirdly cute scenes of teenage bonding. A huge part of growing up involves growing into yourself, which is what we see these two boys exploring. But I also think that a bigger part of growing up involves recognizing that same complexity in others–realizing that everyone keeps secrets, especially from those they’re close to.

This shift in Kyle occurs at the pivotal point when he catches his mother cheating. In reaction, all he can do is run while his best friend chases after him. After an aggressive confrontation when the friend says, “Calm the fuck down. What the fuck happened?” Kyle just walks away without answering. It’s no longer the same between the two. Now Kyle’s keeping more to himself, literally walking away from whatever carefree world they shared before. The two are okay–they bump fists in reconciliation–but he’s changed. At the final dinner scene, the family strains to perform domestic normalcy. The way they look at each other indicates that everyone knows about the mother’s infidelity. Kyle glares at her with barely concealed hostility while she avoids all eye contact and shifts around, clearly uncomfortable. Meanwhile, the father looks between them knowingly. Yet there’s no confrontation: they’re all tacitly agreeing to keep silent about this open secret. Nothing’s made obvious, so the emotional currents driving each scene are just as concealed as the secrets the characters are keeping.

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Without the Lights – Elliot Moss

This is a video I like to re-watch not only because the dancing’s quite entrancing, but also because there are lots of ways to interpret the choreography and symbolism. Overall there’s a theme of juxtaposition, of an innocent ‘before’ and a corrupted ‘after.’ At the start, the girl’s in nature, wearing a light, breezy dress, dancing by herself in her own space–it’s her inner world. The sheets in it are pure. Then this dark, filthy figure emerges, tainting her. He can represent different things: a tormentor in an abusive relationship or depression materializing in a human form. In either case, he demeans her self-worth and alters the way she regards herself, an event symbolized by her falling to her knees while clutching at the mirror.

Once he establishes his influence, the setting changes. Now we’re indoors, sterile. At first, the references to sexual abuse are subtle: the sheets behind her are stained with black ink, suggesting that the bed’s become a site of violence. Her hair is untidy, her makeup is darker, her costume more revealing. Gradually, these references become more explicit. The two dancers struggle physically, but he subdues her efforts at resistance then manipulates her body’s movements. At the point when the black ink starts to mask the bulb–her light–we leave her inner world to see her external reality. She’s sitting on a bed when the faceless man comes in. He undoes his belt; she resigns herself to the routine. But inside, she reaches a breaking point. Raging against the symbol of her violation, she tears down the stained sheets in an act of self-reclamation. The light flickers. We don’t know if it goes out.

At the end, she’s back in the forest. This indicates that she’s at least escaped the situation, but the sunlight’s gone and his traces, the ink, remains. The stained sheets crawl back and drape over her–reminders of the past continually trailing her like a shroud. The trauma lingers; the dark figure is never far away. He creeps up again when she looks at her marred reflection, always there when she has to confront her identity and all that’s shaped it.

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Wet Dreamz – J. Cole

A much more light-hearted video about puppy love! That’s all 🙂