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What to Watch in March 2022: The Best Music Movies, Shows, and Videos

Music
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Including an intimate documentary starring Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum, a Fast & Furious-caliber video from reggae star Koffee, and a heartbreaking cover by Mitski from the film After Yang.

Graphic by Callum Abbott. Kadhja Bonet in “For You (Many Selves Version)”; Lee “Scratch” Perry in The Upsetter: The Life & Music of Lee “Scratch” Perry (photo by Ethan Higbee); Koffee in “Pull Up”; Flee (photo courtesy of Neon)

When you listen to as much music as we do, you notice it everywhere—especially in movies and on TV, where the soundtrack is more important than ever. Our monthly column runs through the most memorable recent examples of where music and visual media meet.

Mitski’s cover of a cult favorite is the beating heart of sci-fi drama After Yang

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In the Cannes Festival hit After Yang, which arrives on Showtime this week, a family’s beloved live-in android suddenly malfunctions, sending the dad (Colin Farrell) on a surreal journey to get him rewired. Directed by Korean-American auteur Kogonada, the movie poses existential questions about the limitations of artificial intelligence and is bolstered by music that provides scaffolding for its complex world-building. The delicate main theme was composed by Oscar winner Ryuichi Sakamoto, but a wistful recurring pop song is the real scene-stealer: “Glide,” lifted from 2001 cult film All About Lily Chou-Chou and covered here by Mitski, is woven into the story with an elegant touch. Filled with longing lines about wanting to be as free as the wind and the waves, “Glide” is a heart-rending mantra for the film’s characters—and for viewers trying to choke back tears. –Eric Torres

Watch: Showtime

Koffee does donuts around the global supply chain crisis

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As of late, footage of rusty cargo containers piled on top of each other has become inextricably linked with the world’s supply chain bottleneck. But the young reggae star Koffee puts your typical dreary shipping yard in a more positive light in her video for “Pull Up”—turns out it’s a great place to hang out of the window of a sports car that’s whipping around at Fast & Furious speeds. The 21-year-old does just that all through the clip, when she’s not posing in front of her favorite Ferraris and Benzes or dancing on the back of a car as it rolls over a bridge. This video is so visceral you can practically feel the wind smacking your face as you watch. The best moment comes around the 1:13 mark, when Koffee, half outside a souped-up auto that’s gracefully drifting along the pavement, looks directly at the camera and opens her mouth to scream the adrenaline out. –Ryan Dombal

Surprise Oscar nominee Flee turns a Daft Punk classic into a jolt of queer catharsis

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Last month, the Danish animated documentary Flee made Oscar history when it became the first film ever nominated for Best International Feature Film, Best Documentary Feature, and Best Animated Feature. Its chances of winning may be slim, but the triple-threat landmark is deserved: Flee tenderly depicts the story of Amin, a refugee whose harrowing travels from Afghanistan to Russia to Denmark are beautifully rendered in expressive sketch-like animation.

Amin’s struggles with his sexuality is one of the film’s most poignant threads, culminating when he finally comes out while visiting his family in Stockholm. After the admission, Amin’s older brother, Abbas, whisks him away, driving in silence until they arrive at a building with a neon rose over the door. Heartbreaking fear flits over Amin’s face until Abbas hands him some cash and says, “Go on. Have fun.” Inside, a gay club is in full swing to the pulsing organ beat of Daft Punk’s “Veridis Quo,” instantly evaporating any sense of tension between the brothers. Here, the French duo’s nu-disco classic—which director Jonas Poher Rasmussen spent three years working to get the rights to—is refashioned into a moment of unexpected queer euphoria. –Eric Torres

Watch: Hulu

Figure skater Jason Brown’s Nina Simone routine was the Winter Olympics’ finest musical moment

Nathan Chen’s short program was the central narrative for the U.S. at this year’s Winter Olympics, his gold medal a redemption story after he totally beefed it in 2018. U.S. skater Jason Brown hit the ice right after Chen broke a world record, as the opening piano strains of Nina Simone’s “Sinnerman” echoed throughout an enormous Beijing stadium. Brown skated and spun beautifully to the 1965 classic’s feverish handclaps. Who cares if Brown didn’t medal—it was better than the Daft Punk routines and the silver medal Stooges-via-Cruella program. Even the New York Times’ graceful stick figure dude could never. –Evan Minsker

Watch: Reddit

Wavy soul singer Kadhja Bonet sees double in lavish style

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Kadhja Bonet’s “For You (Many Selves Version)” is a strutting rework of her single from last year, pumped up with funky guitar, saxophone, and multi-tracked vocals that reinforce its message: being there for yourself is the most important thing you can do. For the video, the singer-songwriter keeps things deceptively simple, performing some playfully awkward choreography against misty California mountains. But what impeccable style: ruby berets, green silk lounge shirts, and fuzzy bomber jackets are just a few of the eye-popping items on display. Eventually Bonet sees a double of herself (in an equally chic get-up, of course), who joins her in both sashaying and singing along, an image of self-sufficiency at its most fashionable. –Eric Torres

Short-but-sweet documentary There’s No End captures Phil Elverum’s quiet joy

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In September 2020, director Mattias Evangelista and cinematographer Riley Donavan ventured out to Washington’s Orcas Island to spend time with Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum and his young daughter, Agathe. The resulting 20-minute film is a beautiful portrait of the quiet moments that compose their day-to-day life: breakfast, playtime, drives to school soundtracked by The Lion King and My Bloody Valentine. Near the end of the documentary, Elverum remarks on his reputation as the “heavy, weight-of-the-world guy who sings about his dead wife.” He gets it, but as There’s No End attests, there’s plenty of joy to be found in him as well. –Quinn Moreland

Helado Negro transforms old home movies into an impressionistic reverie

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Roberto Carlos Lange of Helado Negro has said his wistful dream-pop song “Hometown Dream” is about shifting perception around the idea of where you come from; though there’s freedom in rootlessness, you inevitably take your past experiences and sense of community wherever you go. For the song’s video, the Ecuadorian-American artist unearthed home movies from his first trip to Ecuador in 1988: raw VHS footage pops with color as the camera captures lush mountain drives, beaming family members, and moments of himself goofing off as a kid. The scenes are projected against Lange’s face while he pensively sings along, as flickers of history beautifully commingle with the present. –Eric Torres

Criterion’s “Roots & Revolution: Reggae on Film” collection is a trove of underseen gems

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The Criterion Channel is currently celebrating the history of reggae with a selection of 11 underseen features and documentaries. Spanning from docs about lovers rock and the Rastafarian movement to the 1972 Jimmy Cliff classic The Harder They Come, the “Roots & Revolution: Reggae on Film” collection offers a crash course on the longstanding influence and political strides made by reggae pioneers over the past 60 years. The set also notably includes the streaming debut of a 2009 documentary on the late dub icon Lee “Scratch” Perry and the recently unearthed cult film Babylon, a must-watch 1980 drama with a cast of real-life reggae stars that paints a vivid portrait of London’s thriving soundsystem culture colliding with structural racism and corrupt police. –Eric Torres

Watch: Criterion Channel

Whether you love or hate Kanye, jeen-yuhs is essential viewing

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As Jayson Greene wrote in his recent review: ​​The best thing I can say about this three-part, four-and-a-half-hour Netflix documentary is that it’s essential viewing, especially if you’ve had a tough time grappling with Kanye’s words and actions over the last five years. It’s directed by Clarence “Coodie” Simmons, who acts as our proxy in the story, narrating long chunks in his calming drawl. A comedian and public-access TV host who made a name for himself documenting Chicago’s ’90s hip-hop scene, Coodie first noticed Kanye as a 21-year-old local producer. Intrigued by this fidgety upstart’s ambition to be a beatmaker and a rapper, Coodie decides to follow him around for a while, seeing the possibility for a Hoop Dreams-style documentary about making it against all odds.

Watch: Netflix

Fat Joe and Remy Ma’s week-long stint hosting The Wendy Williams Show was oddly riveting

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As Alphonse Pierre wrote in his recent column: My favorite pastime is watching rappers trying to do things they’re completely unqualified to do. New York lifers Fat Joe and Remy Ma did just that recently, taking over as temporary hosts for gossipy daytime TV mainstay The Wendy Williams Show. I’ll admit it: Their version of the show was kind of riveting to watch—not because it was actually that good, but because they either had such little interest or were so unfamiliar with the usual tabloid fodder that it was basically just them bullshitting on live network television for five days straight.

Catch up on Argentinian producer Bizarrap’s explosively fun live-in-studio videos

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As Gio Santiago recently wrote in their piece on the viral BZRP Music Sessions YouTube series: In the last few years, Argentine producer Gonzalo Conde, better known as Bizarrap (pronounced “Bee-shah-rahp”), has bum-rushed the global stage, becoming one of the world’s most thrilling beatmakers. The 23-year-old’s style smashes together EDM’s brash synths with reggaeton and Latin trap rhythms, with many tracks swerving from style to style. He was nominated for four Latin Grammys last year, including Producer of the Year and Best New Artist, and he was the most-streamed Argentine artist of 2020 on Spotify, where he boasts more than 15 million monthly listeners. His ascension is primarily due to the viral success of his BZRP Music Sessions series on YouTube, which has amassed more than a billion total views.


 

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