Every week, a slew of new music videos hits the web. Watching them at your desk is not time theft because you deserve it; think of it as a nice reward for surviving another work week. But what if you don’t have time to watch every video? Maybe you have a deadline, a hungry pet, or other grown-up concerns. In consideration of your schedule, Lizzie and Kaitlyn bring you a series called One Video. Each week we’ll tell you “one video” you need to watch, why, and for how long.
Kaitlyn: First things first, we need to get through a bunch of apologies. We are sorry that there was no One Video last week, which you probably noticed and felt really sad about. Blame my grandmother, who turned 90 and made me skip work. We’re sorry that we missed SZA’s excellent video for “Drew Barrymore,” which featured the real Drew Barrymore and the “4PM day-drinking hangover” song of the summer. We are sorry that we can’t select Kendrick Lamar’s “ELEMENT.” as this week’s One Video because it’s so beautiful that we don’t even know what to do with it.
We’re sorry that this column is a day early, but sometimes there’s nothing to be done. I’m busy tomorrow. What do you want from me?
Lizzie: It’s true that sometimes there’s nothing to be done, but you can at least usually watch a music video, which is the entire point of this column.
This week’s video: “I Dare You” by The xx
Lizzie: This week’s One Video pick went screen-to-screen with a Cardi B video, a Killers video in which Jason Sudekis stunt double Brandon Flowers does some push-ups and dresses like a cowboy, and another Chainsmokers lyric video, which is exactly like this other Chainsmokers lyric video we already wrote about.
“I Dare You” is like a modern-day Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, starring Millie Bobby Brown, Paris Jackson, and Moonlight’s Ashton Sanders. Instead of crashing a parade they find a private pool where British indie band The xx just happen to be performing for a crowd of zero people.
Who is Millie Bobby Brown?
Kaitlyn: The young heroine of Netflix’s summer 2016 viral hit Stranger Things, Millie Bobby Brown is also the young heroine of this week’s One Video. She misses her school bus and “dares” her sister to let her join in on a hooky date with sis and sis’s boyfriend. Unfortunately this is a terrible idea because she knows full well that she is secretly in love with the boyfriend and that seeing the pair waltz together in a “haunted” music venue is going to make her cry. Other famous things in this video include: the iPhone SE, Calvin Klein sports bras, and Los Angeles landmark, El Capitan Theatre.
Lizzie: I feel like this video showcases MBB’s acting range better than Stranger Things ever did. Instead of a mostly silent angry lab-raised child, Brown gets to be a slowpoke, a tough guy, an xx fan, and a person with a broken heart, all in under seven minutes.
What’s special about “I Dare You” by The xx:
Kaitlyn: Young love is obviously what’s special about this video, and we shouldn’t have to say so. Two pairs of teens make romance eyes at each other while a fifth teen feels devastated — the classic story of adolescence, and conveyed beautifully here with a nice song, rich colors, and what I can only guess are familiar LA skyscapes. (I’ve never left the East Coast, sorry.)
Lizzie: It’s a universal human experience, except for the nice house, indoor pool, perfect skin, free intimate show by a major band that doesn’t even live in your city, and a pretty sweet car.
How long everyone should watch “I Dare You” by The xx:
Kaitlyn: I like the part where everyone’s dancing and Romy Madley Croft is singing “All I’ve ever had are love songs.” Sweet. This section is from 3:39 to 4:48. Normally I recommend watching the whole video but this is technically an ad for Calvin Klein and Belgian fashion designer Raf Simons, and I don’t feel like doing someone else’s job today.
Lizzie: I like the part at around 3:00 when they’re driving and they slowly pass a hockey goalie with his mask on, a nerd in a tree, and an old-timey baseball player. Then everyone looks into the sun and squints, like when you do that thing where you look up like “Oh yesss, the suuuun.”
