Spike Jonze DVD

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Just watched this recently. Hadn't seen many of the videos in a while, still enjoyed them.

Did anyone see the documentaries on the second disc? I'm not sure how I feel about the Lance Bangs piece in which Jonze becomes the character of "Richard Couffey" (the nerdy white guy who dances in the Fatboy Slim video) in total method Kaufmanesque commitment as the Torrance California dance troupe prepares for their 1999 mtv awards performance.

While Jonze's performance as Couffey is a fascinating showcase of his abilities as a performer, the mannerisms and subtleties adopted by Jonze made it a eerily convincing transformation, I'm not exactly comfortable with what the result is.

It seems like the other members of the dance troupe might be real people who Jonze engages in the "prank" for the purpose of being laughed at by the pop stars in the audience and the hipsters in his entourage. It seems like he's using these culture jamming techniques that would be more interesting if he somehow disrupted the media event in a way that offered a biting or amusing critique of aristocratic celebrity or mtv's glamour aesthetic. Instead the Coffey character just seems to masochisticly mock non fashionable people.
I don't know. I was wondering if I was alone in being bothered by this.

― theodore fogelsanger, Sunday, 25 July 2004 01:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think it's very likely that the rest of the troupe isn't in on the joke.

― Dan I., Sunday, 25 July 2004 01:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I was wondering if I was alone in being bothered by this.

This is one of the main reasons for my discomfort with Jonze in general.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Sunday, 25 July 2004 01:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think it's very likely that the rest of the troupe isn't in on the joke.
-- Dan I. (w1nt3rmut...), July 25th, 2004.

You're probably right but the nerd masochism of the joke itself still gives me a rash.

― theodore fogelsanger, Sunday, 25 July 2004 01:56 (twenty-one years ago)

It was nice to see the Chemical Brothers "Elektrobank" video again: Sofia Coppola doing high school gymnastics while her family, coach, and russian competitor look on.

However, it's annoying that Jonze doesn't do any commentary for the videos himself. Instead we hear the music arists which is a shame since the Chemical Brothers have nothing interesting to say and their personalities are almost as boring as their music. Although as an artist I can understand wanting to be guarded about one's process. Especially in this age of dvd extras when people arguably know too much about

― theodore fogelsanger, Sunday, 25 July 2004 02:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Imagine the word "about," from my previous post doesn't exist and the sentence simply ends.

― theodore fogelsanger, Sunday, 25 July 2004 02:11 (twenty-one years ago)

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