Natalie Neal explores the saddest love story ever her new short film I still chose to Stay, the first film in MirrorCube’s Vision Series.
Fans of Lana Del Rey’s saddest songs will enjoy watching model Soko waft around her glittery pool drinking cherry filled cocktails and wearing awesome sunglasses. Soko makes a leopard swim cap into a fashion statement, and the VHS film seems like everything has been run through a nostalgic Instgram filter. Sara Sutterlin’s sick romance poetry provides the voice over and the storyline.
“I think the element of whimsy can throw people off the scent sometimes, but it’s just delicious frosting on top of a cake that was baked full of period blood and tears,” said Neal. That about sums it up. If you’re not prepared for brutal honesty about hetero romance, be prepared to gag.
“I was just blown away when I found her poems,” Neal said, referring to Sara Sutterlin’s intimate verses, screencaps of which are usually present on sad teen Tumblr pages. They’re overtly sexual, in that “this isn’t hot, it’s gross,” way.
This particular video centers around having an empty feeling of indifference towards someone you once loved.
Neal describes it as a woman’s reflection on life as she’s caught between dometic bliss and domestic hell.
“I watch you kiss the inside of my thighs like you’re doing it to someone else,” says the voice over as a blurry man is shown on film for the only time. Watching Soko act lonely is heartbreaking, if only because loneliness is an emotion that most people try their hardest to hide.
“Everyone is a stranger—even you,” says the voice over. Repulsed by her man but unwilling to let him go. Neal says this is Soko as she “reaches the level of introspection required to know what [she] values and wants.”
In the end, the title says it all: “I still chose to Stay”.
This post, Natalie Neal’s Short Film Starring Soko Is So Real It Might Make You Gag, by Stephanie Janetos, appeared first on Galore.