An interpretive dance cage match (with shades of MMA and Pro Wrestling moves thrown in) together with sadness and longing, between a 30 yr old male dancer and 12 year old female dancer. I think it’s a mistake to read a concrete story into the thing but to head off any thoughts at the pass, I get definitely father/daughter platonic from this thing, nothing racy.
I don’t have anything to say about it really. I think it’s a good video. Runs the dangers of being a “sequel” given the very similar aesthetic compared to the previous video. But I found it to be moving.
I liked it (and I can’t stand that guy). You’re right that it does run a slight risk of sequelitis, but the different setting makes up for that, I think. And there’s nothing wrong with thematically-connected videos, IMO.
And I don’t get why people are saying it’s racy - clearly people are not familiar with modern dance, if they wanted it to be racy, it would be a lot racier.
And I’ve read people complaining about the nude-coloured leotard on the girl (for this and Chandelier). Personally, it seems to render her Barbie-sexless, not sexual.
Had a thought - I know Maddie is supposed to be Sia (with the wig and all) - do you think Shia was chosen specifically as an animus figure (the whole thing seems more Jungian than parent metaphor)? Shia/Sia, geddit?
Death of the artist and all that, but from what I’ve researched Sia claims it’s about her two warring selves. Shia is the old version of her that was trapped and afraid, while Ziegler is the new free version, and the video is about them trying to reconcile, but her old self is still ultimately trapped.
It’s no secret that he seems to have gone off the rails in the last year. First there was the issue of his blatant plagiarism, and his flailing attempts to explain it away as some sort of strange commentary on the nature of art. Then he was arrested for public intoxication and fighting with cops or something. And then he claimed he was raped during a performance art piece where he, I guess, had to sit there and take it because of the confines of his art.
Now he’s an avant garde dancer, performing in Sia’s latest video alongside the child dancer from her previous (and, IMO, excellent) video for Chandelier.
Sia has come out and public apologized for offending anyone with the child-rapey overtones of the video, explaining that both Maddie Zeigler (12) and Shia Labeouf (28) play aspects of Sia’s own personality and that she couldn’t have imagined making the video with anyone else.
Unlike Chandelier, which was interesting in a “I don’t know what’s going on but I can’t look away” sort of way, the video for Elastic Heart seems like normal dull interpretive dance. Except, the whole time you can’t help but think, “Why the fuck did Shia Labeouf take off all of his clothes and pretend like he knew how to dance for this video? Why did anyone think that the public could watch this video without asking themselves that same question? Is it time for Shia Labeouf to just crawl back into his mansion with his millions of dollars, shave his beard, and maybe come out when he doesn’t feel the need to be edgy for no reason?”
I’m not sure I had a point for this thread. Sorry.
I saw that and (having never seen an episode of Dance Moms) thought to myself “Why is a tweener Pia Zadora clone naked fighting with Shia LeBeef? And why does everyone apparently have ASL Tourette’s?”
I ran across an article about it earlier today. I don’t really know much about Shia Labeouf, but his name seems to show up a lot. So, I watched the video. It’s not that pedo, but it’s easy to believe people looking for it, would see it. If you keep in mind it’s two actors playing two sides of the director’s… something, it’s no big deal.
I’m curious what the two sides are though. I guess I suck at symbolism.
I’m not sure he’s struggling to remain relevant as much as it seems he’s struggling to find meaning in his life. Everything he’s done so far screams “I’m trying to find myself. I won’t let Hollywood define me!”
I have no idea who Sia is, but I liked the video. My take was that of a girl growing up and moving away from her father – nothing ever seemed sexual about it. The ending was a bit bizarre under that reading, though, as it was more confusingly shot and a bit more violent.
I did find it almost amusing that the ad ahead of it was for the upcoming teacher-student[? the ‘boy’ may be playing anywhere from 16 to 25] inappropriate relationship movie, which Google hasn’t served to me anywhere else.
I like the young dancer, and hope she doesn’t get screwed up by childhood celebrity. I could see her turning into to a cool Milla Jovovich or something.
Just saw the video now after being aware of the controversy.
I thought it was just a weird video loaded with symbolism I wasn’t meant to understand. I agree that there was a Father/Daughter Brother/Sister aspect to the back-and-forth and not really pedo (until the end I guess).
I’ll be damned if Shia didn’t climb that cage wicked fast though! Good for him being in shape