Nadeem SalaamOught | Beautiful Blue Sky Music Video Review
“Ought‘s narrative music video for their song “Beautiful Blue Sky,” both satisfies the homage to film-esthetic subtleties appreciated in such masters of film, such as Kubrick, while capturing the existential crisis of man.
While being more Tarkovsky than Kubrick, we open down a long shot in a hallway adorned with matching sickly-colored wallpaper, as a figure (played by Matt Drews) stares uncomfortably at his door hesitant, not a moment too soon before his twitching begins. What exactly is this ailment? Well, it starts a long series of Matt Drew’s anonymous character moving like a cicada waking up from a deep slumber, but only the ailment grows worse. Soon the lights never turn off, soon he can’t escape his own body, soon everything is near when he wishes it were far. This video’s entirety could carry its weight as an avant short screening at Lincoln Center, a testament to the craft of director Bobby McHugh. Really it is remarkable, and even more so how it stands in harmony with Ought’s entire lyrical frustrations with the feelings of nihilism in the new millennia.
McHugh tells NPR this week that, “Clarity, balance and happiness can be the direct result of movement and breath, while our obsession with development, consumerism and frustration with the banalities of our everyday experience can cause feelings of nihilism and depression that at their most extreme can render us immobile and constrained. In this video, I tried to weave together two dreamy, surreal storylines that reflect these two competing states of being.” A point well taken, – my favorite moment comes around when the lights are in his bed as he struggles to sleep, his movements are so deliberate and controlled, – without an escape he lowers his bed-sheet down the window. I can’t remember being this struck by the simple motions of a video since another narrative short by way of “Karma Police” had a man sweating a storm being chased by a car down a dark dirt road.
So if you like anatomy, if you like short films, if you like punk, and a little light in the dark, then Ought have a marrying of mediums full of inspiration for you.
It’s safe to assume consumption on your devices is a must to view this, but to see? Music and art readily provide.”
Credits:
Featuring: Matt Drews
Directed by Bobby McHugh//\ bobbymchugh.com
Director of Photography: Jacob Rosen
Steadicam Operator: Daniel Mimura
First AC: June Zandona
Choreography: Kate Wallich
Styling: Michele Andrews
Art Director: Christopher Harrell
Edited: Chris Ophoven
Color: Bryan Smaller
Production Coordinator: Max Cleary