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Tag: Jocelyn The Idol

  • Smile 2: Stars—They’re Just Like Us!, Or: Even Pop Stars Get Demonically Possessed

    Smile 2: Stars—They’re Just Like Us!, Or: Even Pop Stars Get Demonically Possessed

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    With such pressure to outperform the success of 2022’s Smile, writer-director Parker Finn wanted to approach the movie’s sequel from an entirely new angle. And what could be more divergent from the setting of the first movie than the (theoretically) high-glamor world of pop stardom? In Smile 2, the pop star in the eye of the proverbial storm is Skye Riley (Naomi Scott)—think of her as an Ashley O (Miley Cyrus) from Black Mirror type, or even a Celeste from Vox Lux sort. Or, if one wants to make real-life comparisons, there are a few similar options to choose from, including Halsey and Lady Gaga. It is the latter that Naomi Scott specifically calls out as a source of inspiration, particularly her early 2010s aesthetic and musical vibe.

    But then, of course, there is the Britney Spears element of it all—not just in terms of Skye being scrutinized for her “bad,” drug-addled behavior, but also because of the nature of her relationship with her mother, Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt). It is she who embodies the entire Spears family by acting as her “momager” and, therefore, usually being most concerned with how much money Skye can make for “them” (but really, for Elizabeth). During her “off the rails” period, Elizabeth was clearly more concerned with “getting her back on track” for financial reasons as opposed to reasons related to concern for her well-being. Which, yes, smacks of the way Britney was given essentially no time to recover after her 2007 through early 2008 breakdown before she was cajoled into putting out new music and going on a tour. In many regards, too, Skye’s substance abuse and mental breakdown that caused her to cancel her last tour bears a similarity to Jocelyn’s (Lily-Rose Depp) backstory in The Idol (and yes, Spears was also the blueprint for creating the Jocelyn character, as was the abovementioned Ashley O).

    In order to do some “damage control” for that breakdown, which came to the fore after she got in a car accident with her boyfriend, Paul Hudson (Ray Nicholson—that’s right, the son of Jack), while both were intoxicated, Skye agrees to make her first promotional appearance in a year on, of all things, The Drew Barrymore Show. Which makes plenty of sense when one takes into account the meta nature of Drew Barrymore being an essential to the opening of any horror movie.

    What’s more, there’s even another new pop star in the game that exhibits occasional similarities to Skye—at least in terms of her emotional fragility. That pop star being, of course, Chappell Roan. Particularly in terms of how creeped out Skye starts to get by her obsessive fans—even if that’s due, in part, to “The Smiler” (as the demonic essence/antagonist of the movie is called) making them seem creepier than they actually are…to an extent. Because everyone knows fandoms really can come across that way. In any event, the “creep factor” doesn’t just include The Smiler’s ability to make fans at a meet-and-greet smile at her in that eerie, plastered-on way, but also its ability to make them seemingly appear anytime, anywhere. Most chillingly of all, inside of her massive NYC apartment, where one especially notable scene (the one where a gaggle of them are leering/diabolically smiling at her from within her closet, before chasing after her throughout the abode) comes off as a re-creation of how Roan must more than occasionally feel about her own obsessive fans: like they’re going to fucking murder her and wear her skin.

    Needless to say, The Smiler is tapping into Skye’s dormant anxieties about her fans and their potential for “going totally psycho” on her at the drop of a fedora hat (that’s a 2003 Britney reference). To be sure, The Smiler is having an even easier time toying with and preying upon the headspace of a pop star, though that’s not why Finn opted to make Smile 2 come from this perspective.

    Instead, Finn’s decision to render the Smile 2 universe from the view of a pop star was largely due to his desire to challenge himself with the difficulties that setting and lifestyle would present. As Finn recounted to The Wrap, “I really wanted to step back from what I had done in the first film, and try to be like, ‘What is the least likely path forward for a sequel?’ I really wanted to challenge myself and drill down. Any idea that I could come up with that first week or two, I was like, ‘This is too obvious.’ I really held it to task.” The result is a breed of horror that’s right at home with pop music and celebrity, for as many a famous pop star keeps emphasizing more and more: there’s nothing fucking scarier/more potentially life-threatening than being known on an international level. Making the pressures of an already demanding job become further compounded by all the scrutiny. Add a “cosmic evil beam that no one else can see” into the mix and the pressure becomes insurmountable (which, in Skye’s case, results in severe bouts of trichotillomania).

    Indeed, this turns out to be one of the most surprising statements of Smile 2: that it’s almost a kind of defense/“let’s have more empathy” for famous people manifesto. As The Wrap phrased it, “This isn’t someone who can suffer in isolation. Everyone will see her disintegrate.” And that makes everything feel so much more heightened—not just for Skye, but for the audience watching, often suffering from second-hand embarrassment as they watch her “biff it” in very public scenarios. For example, while acting as a presenter at a music industry charity event, Skye not only goes out onstage nwith smeared lipstick (after swatting away a bug from her face backstage), but also proceeds to act increasingly unhinged once the teleprompter ceases to show her what she’s supposed to say next.

    Of course, no matter what she says or does next, in the end, just as it was in Smile, Skye 1) can’t even be sure what is and is not reality and 2) it won’t matter if it is or not anyway since The Smiler is bound to have his “committing suicide” way with her. Granted, the manner in which the “entity” does it this time around has far graver consequences for the witness(es) of her death. But at least those taking in Skye’s demise can relish that certain “Stars—They’re Just Like Us!” quality. Even if nothing could be further from the truth.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Addison Rae Parodies Pop to Perfection on AR

    Addison Rae Parodies Pop to Perfection on AR

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    Coming across like The Idol’s Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) meets Vox Lux’s Celeste (Natalie Portman), Addison Rae has outdone what it means to do a “sendup” of the pop star. That much has been made clear after she finally unleashed an EP of her previously unreleased songs, called simply: AR (in honor of her initials, obvs). The five-track offering gets right into what Rae is all about—putting the word tart in “pop tart”—with “I Got It Bad.”

    Produced by OzGo and Rami, perhaps Rae chose to avoid involving her own producer boyfriend, Omer Fedi, on the project because the song is probably about him. Complete with details like, “He looks like the boy next door from my boy band poster/But he drives like a maniac in his black Range Rover/He got me close, but now it’s official.” Elsewhere, she speaks to what Usher once did on “U Got It Bad” by demanding, “Take off every piece of me/Until there’s only skin on my body/He’s what I want, I could just cry/He’s what I want, give me more time.” Yep, Rae has no trouble emulating the “World Class Sinner” vibes of the aforementioned Jocelyn (“You can pull my hair/Touch me anywhere,” etc.). She even looks vaguely like Jocelyn (meets Keira Knightley) on the cover of the album, which features her blowing her pink bubblegum for a touch of “ironic” flair that alludes to this particular brand of bubblegum pop. Still often maligned and underestimated for its influence on the culture. 

    And, talking of influence on the culture, Charli XCX makes a cameo on the next song, “2 Die 4 (no, it’s not a remake of Tove Lo’s song of the same name, itself a sample of Hot Butter’s “Popcorn”—and actually OzGo produced it, too). Considering this is the girl who made a song called “Obsessed,” lyrics like, “My neck, to die for/My legs, to die for/This ah-ah sex, to die for/I-I-I want someone who thinks I’m to die—” should come as no surprise. Nor should the continued braggadocio manifest in, “My taste, to die for/My waist, to die for/This boom-boom bass, to die for/I-I-I want someone who thinks I’m to diе for.” In short, she’s saying what Carrie Bradshaw did when she told Aleksandr Petrovsky, “I am someone who is looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can’t-live-without-each-other love.” Except that it’s done with her more narcissistic Gen Z flourish, admitting, essentially, that she wants someone who’s obsessed with her. Every mundane, potentially plastic aspect of her. 

    By now it should be clear that AR is very similar to what Kim Petras tried and failed to do with the egregious Slut Pop. In the same fashion, Rae is essentially parodying what pop music is but still churning out the kind of earworms that people can’t resist. As well as earworms they would never expect. This includes Rae’s decision to cover an unreleased Lady Gaga song called “Nothing On (But the Radio),” which “Stefani Germanotta” originally composed in 2007 with Billy Steinberg and Josh Alexander. And though ill-informed Gen Z probably wouldn’t know it, the song is of course a reference to Marilyn Monroe responding to the media’s question, “Is it true that when you posed for that famous calendar photograph, Miss Monroe, you had nothing on?” She quipped, “No. I had the radio on.” 

    In this modern era, there’s, needless to say, no big scandal about women being in various states of undress. In fact, it’s expected if she wants to hold on to her fame. And as Rae does an almost better imitation of Gaga than Gaga does of Madonna, it’s clear that AR is all about stylization. Like a drag queen exaggerating all the tropes and cliches about women, Rae does the same with pop music. Complete with the obsequious sex kitten act apparent in the promises, “I’m calling just to tell you/Get here, I’ll make it all worth your while/I can make you some food [because the way to a man’s heart is still through his stomach, right?]/I know you’ll be wearin’ a smile/‘Cause I’ve got nothing on, but the radio.”

    More Olivia Rodrigo-oriented than the rest, “It Could’ve Been U” has that pop-punk sort of bent as Rae taunts a good-for-nothing ex who treated her badly one too many times. Detailing how she used to break down with each of their break-ups, she finally decides, “Now I don’t wanna make up, I’ll make out/With somebody new, it could’ve been you/‘Cause every time we’d fuck up, I’d freak out/You’re out of second chances, now I’m out/With somebody new, it could’ve been you/It could’ve been, it could’ve been you.” Alas, whoever he was seemed to be busy assuming that being straight man made him untouchable on the behavior front. But Rae boasts about how she’s someone who is far superior, describing, “He’ll take me to places I wanna go/Introduce me to people I wanna know/And you might be there, but I wouldn’t know/I used to miss you, now I don’t.” Of course, she’ll probably end up writing a “vampire”-esque song about this dude, too. For what are consistently disappointing men for if not inspirations for pop songs by women? 

    They’re also for reminding that this is a man’s world, but it wouldn’t be nothin’ without a woman or a girl. And so, to close out the roughly eleven-minute odyssey of what it means to emulate all the “pop bitches” who came before her is “Obsessed” (Mariah Carey probably refuses to acknowledge that anyone else has a song called this). Originally released in 2021, Rae is at her most Selena Gomez-sounding on this (hopefully) tongue-in-cheek, grandiloquent single that says so much about a generation raised on social media (with Rae herself transitioning from being a “social media star” to a pop one). For everyone has become more than a little obsessed with themselves, which makes it a bit harder to find a subset of people to be the obsessors (though Taylor Swift doesn’t have a problem with that).

    Regardless, Rae has decided, “And if I lost you, I’d still have me, I can’t lose/When you say that you’re obsessed with me, me too.” The only problem is, with everyone so busy being obsessed with themselves, it doesn’t leave much room for noticing that “parodying” self-obsession (and pop, for that matter) has become much too serious.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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