To accompany the release of her album star-crossed, Kacey Musgraves has released a stunning film, debuted exclusively on Paramount+ this Friday 10th September. The film, directed by Bardia Zeinali, is a 50 minute dream-like production showcasing the 15-track record, structured as a three-act modern-day tragedy, charting the singer’s personal journey of heartache and healing.
To accompany the release of star-crossed, Kacey Musgraves will release a stunning film, debuting exclusively on Paramount+ this Friday 10th September. The film, directed by Bardia Zeinali, is a 50 minute dream-like production showcasing the 15-track record, structured as a three-act modern-day tragedy, charting the singer’s personal journey of heartache and healing. It’s a beautifully shot and detailed expression of heartbreak in all its forms and the complications involved in healing a broken heart.
As Musgraves has shared extensively, the project was inspired by classical tragedies, kicking off from the start of the film with an excerpt from the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet – setting out the premise from the offset for a dramatic tragedy, before Musgraves takes on the initial role of narrator resplendent in a bridal gown.
Act I – ‘I Just Want To Be A Good Wife’ features a host of stars including Symone (Ru Paul’s Drag Race winner), Princess Nokia and Victoria Pedretti (You) in pastels looking like the 2021 reincarnation of Mean Girls. The act takes Musgraves from the role of an ‘anti-matrimonial’ robbing a bridal store with her entourage (terrorising bridezilla, Courtney Parchman – the viral star “AverageFashionBlogger”) soundtracked by ‘Simpler Times,’ before entering ‘Good Wife’ school, as she is joined by a legion of robotic wives to learn their ways, from zombie-esque ironing to robotic laying the table. It’s humorously and ironically done, embracing her pain at the end of her relationship, before transitioning through ‘If This Was a Movie’ from a life in black and white to a life in colour on ‘Angel.’
In Act II – ‘Before We All Lost the Sun,’ Musgraves experiences the climactic pain and anger at the end of her relationship. As she begins on her road trip, Musgraves flits through ‘Bread Winner’ on the radio to the words ‘Love isn’t always a smooth road and before you know it you’re speeding into a road you don’t recognise,’ summing up the act to follow. ‘Justified’ taken as a stand-alone excerpt would make a stunning music video, allowing the listener to experience the complicated emotions f moving on – moving between joy, anger, misery and hope using different speeds and landscapes – before being reminded of ‘Simpler Times’ by her phone as ‘Camera Roll’ reminds her of ‘WHAT YOU’VE FORGOTTEN’ including ‘THE DAY IT FELL APART’ forcing her to crash the car. This is the most fantastical part of the film, where plastic body parts are strewn across the road, including Kacey’s singing head as nurses. It’s the one part that feels incongruous with the flow of the rest of the film, rather than pushing creative boundaries it doesn’t quite fit with the accompanying track ‘Camera Roll.’ As Kacey’s plastic body parts are dragged into the hospital, the notes of ‘Easier Said’ play out, before Eugene Levy (Schitt’s Creek) is brought in to examine the body and fix the broken heart, putting her back together.
The final Act III – ‘There Is A Light’ embraces the hope after pain and heartbreak. Musgraves is carried out of the hospital in a resplendent body armour to the same track, running alongside a stunning black horse. The scene is brimming with hope and a beautifully mythological feel that feels like the culmination of Musgraves’ tragic vision. This before shetakes a pill that transports her to a church where San Cha sings ‘What Doesn’t Kill Me.’ Kacey shimmers in a short bridal gown on ‘There Is A Light’ on the trippy, psychedelic-touched scene as the church transitions into a rave. Musgraves appears to dance off the toxins of her pain in this liberatingly joyful moment, before she is transported back to the facade of the initial wedding chapel from the opening scene. The final scene feels extraordinarily empowering as Musgraves sings ‘Gracias A La Vida,’ she is clothed instead in a red flowing gown – singing out all the pain and vulnerability of her divorce.
The film captures the dream and fugue-like stake of a break-up. Directed by Bardia Zeinali (Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande), it’s an incredibly detailed and sumptuously fun and upbeat take on divorce and pain, embracing the ridiculousness and the exaggerated nature of tragedies. It embraces the full extent and pushes the boundaries of Musgraves’ creativity.
