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Whether its Tropical Popical, that sci-fi movie with Paul Mescal we all agreed not to talk about, or a music video for a song released in 1977, Saoirse Ronan will show up in the most unexpected of places. On the latter, she appears this week in a new music video for Talking Heads classic Psycho Killer, as yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the band’s first live gig, opening for the Ramones at CBGB in New York in 1975.
Directed by Mike Mills, the man behind the chair for underseen banger films like 20th Century Women and C’mon, C’mon, the video charts a young woman going through her daily routine, brushing her teeth, driving, going to her office job – experiencing a heady range of emotions, all while no one around her seems to notice. She’s stuck in a loop, and whether she rages, despairs, or exhales and accepts it, it doesn’t seem to change, a maddening cycle of a boring fella, a lifeless whitecollar job. Sounds like she better run run run run, run run run away. Or at least get a bigger suit to wear to work.
Talking about the video, Ronan has said “simply be mentioned in the same breath as Talking Heads is hands down one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me, let alone making a video with the singular Mike Mills.” – the actress would be a perfect fit for a Mills feature, so hopefully this is the start of a futher partnership between the two.
Mills described his thought process for the video and bringing in Ronan in an interview with Vulture this week.
“The last thing you want to do is pin down or reduce what the song is about. The song is so much more than being psychotic or killing. At first, I was totally daunted. I was like, How the fuck do you make a video for ‘Psycho Killer’ for my art heroes? It’s impossible. I can’t think of that idea, it’s too hard. Then walking down my hallway, the idea came to me in a flash. Saoirse isn’t at all a psycho killer or anything. It’s the environment and that life and false normality.”
As covered previously by Mills in 20th Century Women, the punk scene is very divisive, but surely everyone can appreciate this effort.