As actress Laura Harrier (soon to play Liz Allen in the upcoming Spiderman: Homecoming) makes her way through Carrie Brownstein’s new short film — which is actually part of Kenzo’s seeming campaign, following their Spike Jonze-directed perfume ad, to become my favorite luxury brand independent cinema production company — you’ll start to see other faces you might recognize: 1. House of Cards/Luke Cage/Moonlight actor Mahershala Ali, 2. But I’m a Cheerleader/Orange Is the New Black‘s Natasha Lyonne, and 3. Kim Gordon. That formula for the Brownstein-directed short alone was enough to draw me to this thing, but there’s more. (As in, you know, the actual content of the short, which, given that it was made as promotional material for a fashion company’s Fall-Winter campaign — and debuted at New York Fashion Week — is pretty fantastic.)
The premise is the literalizing of every hyperbolic thing uttered on social media. Ali plays a character whose curt explanations and crisp suit make him look like he’s explaining some additional phenomenon that was left out of The Matrix. He explains to Harrier’s character, who’s summoned to his odd corporate office, that they’ve been gathering “Every email or text message [she’s] ever sent or received, every comment [she’s] ever posted on Social Media or a blog.” Then he mentions how she’d responded to a specific Instagram post by actress Natasha Lyonne. “You wrote ‘Mom,’ a term of affection implying you’re so fond of Ms. Lyonne that you wish she were your mother… Do you want Ms. Lyonne to actually be your mother?”
And, of course, soon after we’re hearing: “Hey kiddo, I’m Natasha — I guess just call me ‘mom.'” And throughout the course of what ensues, Lyonne starts becoming more embarrassingly “mom”-like, making odd throat-clearing noises at a generically trendy eatery, leaving a series of useless voicemails, asking prying questions, and perhaps most intensely, trying to rub schmutz off her new daughter’s face.
Kim Gordon’s appearance, which I won’t spoil, is equally amusing.
Watch:
[Via Pitchfork]