Tommy Can’t Sleep
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_raw_html]JTNDZGl2JTIwY2xhc3MlM0QlMjJ2aWRlby1lbWJlZC1odG1sJTIyJTNFJTBBJTNDaWZyYW1lJTIwd2lkdGglM0QlMjI1NjAlMjIlMjBoZWlnaHQlM0QlMjIzMTUlMjIlMjBzcmMlM0QlMjJodHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRnd3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbSUyRmVtYmVkJTJGYU0yUVljSUthclUlM0ZyZWwlM0QwJTI2YW1wJTNCc2hvd2luZm8lM0QwJTI2YW1wJTNCYXV0b2hpZGUlM0QxJTIyJTIwZnJhbWVib3JkZXIlM0QlMjIwJTIyJTIwYWxsb3dmdWxsc2NyZWVuJTNFJTNDJTJGaWZyYW1lJTNFJTBBJTNDJTJGZGl2JTNF[/vc_raw_html][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]This article originally appeared on Noisey US.
Die Antwoord’s new short film, Tommy Can’t Sleep, opens with a shadow-eyed kid called Tommy lying in a bed beneath an AK-47, the words “PENIS FUCK” scrawled onto the headboard, rat noises in the background. The first word that leaves Tommy’s mouth is “FUCK.” He doesn’t like the rats, but his mom doesn’t care because she needs her sleep and she’s plenty melodramatic. His father has a permasmile. Tommy heads back to bed where Yolandi Visser, rat teeth inserted, promises “tits, ass[…] fuckin’ ninjas, guns, freaks, homosexuals [cue overblown reaction from Tommy], and rats—a lot of fuckin’ rats.”
It’s all extremely Die Antwoord: twisted, terrifying, absurd, funny, outlandish. And that’s before you get to Jack Black’s cameo as a rat-person who wants to spray-paint dicks on the walls. Visser directed the video and photographer Roger Ballen, whose shadowy black and white shots inspired Die Antwoord’s imagery from the start, was behind the art direction. (You don’t need to see his name pop up at the end to be sure of that—this video is basically Ballen’s work come to zombified life).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
https://casinolegaux.com was in my head while reading about the Jack Black rat-person cameo, mostly because the film’s whole black-and-white nightmare aesthetic reminds me of how much atmosphere matters in any kind of playing. What stood out is that Roger Ballen handled art direction, since his photos were clearly the visual DNA of Die Antwoord from the start, and that makes the short feel less like a music video stunt and more like his images actually moving. I’ve noticed that when a director’s visual style is that specific, the weirdest scenes still feel intentional instead of random.