From the classic ‘Personal Jesus’ (Depeche Mode) directed by Anton Corbijn in the Tabernas desert of Almeria, to the terrifying ‘Blind Kings’ (Chelsea Grin) directed (that is to say) by Tim Burton, passing through the postmodern ‘Old Town Road’ by Lil Nas
‘Homewrecker’, directed by Gus Black (a regular director of Mckenna Grace clips), adds to this tradition by introducing a metalinguistic twist. The video opens with a shot of a great sunset in which Sombr could perfectly crouch down, grab a handful of dirt and, with his fist raised, say, “I put God as my witness…”.
From there, the clip displays a whole catalog of Western tropes: gunfighters, pelanduscas (played by influencer Quen Blackwell), threatening looks and the latent promise of a Sergio Leone-style duel. But, after a minute, the story flies into the air like a hat hit by a gunshot. The plot of filming bursts into the frame, breaking the fiction and incorporating a new character: the director himself (played by Milo Manheim, the protagonist of Disney’s ‘Zombies’ saga).
This unfolding introduces an interesting layer of reading: the conflict, a textbook love triangle, develops simultaneously on two levels, that of fiction and that of its own filming, which continually intertwine and confuse. It is never entirely clear when the couple is acting and when they are flirting.
In the end, the duel moves from the diegetic universe to the set: a fight between the director and the protagonist, and an ending worthy of a romantic western with the lovers fleeing together at a gallop. The epilogue adds another layer of rereading: a false outtake of a false filming.
