Directors: Terrance Colebrook & Ricardo ‘Nrbarz’ Neeley
Various artists, philosophers, wits, and Christopher Hitchens, have adapted the hyperbolic maxim that “the greatest sin is to be boring” to their relevant fields. It’s obviously nonsense – and in Hitchens’ case in particular, I would argue becoming a cheerleader for war criminals is probably a greater sin. But we live finite lives, our brief allotted time on Earth is one of our most precious resources – so when a film seems to waste even a tiny scrap of that existence, we can’t help but resent it a little.
There have been worse films to arrive in the in-tray of Indy Film Library, then, but few have frustrated me in quite the manner TRUE LOVE manages. It is one of the most singularly dull experiences I have ever endured, and while it comes in at just over four minutes, it was almost as difficult to sit through as Jason Brown’s three-hour slideshow The Adventures at Comic-Con.
From a technical perspective, there is almost nothing to say here. The entire video consists of three or four locales where co-director Ricardo ‘Nrbarz’ Neeley is lip-syncing to an apparently endless, rhythmless stream of consciousness he recorded beforehand. Each shot is nicely framed and lit, delivering a crisp, clear image with plenty of definition and texture. Mostly the song syncs up with the images. The sound all comes from Nrbarz’s pre-recorded track – though there is a distinct hiss of background noise throughout, as if the filmmakers forgot to turn off the natural sound track from one of the clips depicting a deserted ruin or a peaceful garden.
But the real problems don’t come from the technology available, or the craft put into constructing this music video. The problems come from the utter lack of imagination or effort in their application. While, as I have mentioned before, I can’t review a music video on the basis of the music – because music is a long way from my area of expertise – I can tell you how directors Neeley and Terrance Colebrook have constructed a film to complement it. So, while the long-winded and meandering lyrics issuing vague dating advice here might not be my cup of tea, that’s about as far as I can take that line of thought.
What I can say more extensively, though, is if your lyrics are looking to impart wisdom on relationships, at least some of the images accompanying them might want to feature representations of at least one relationship. We could see the highs and lows of a couple in the early stages of dating, while Nrbarz performs in the background. We could even follow several different relationships – some of which don’t work out – to really help hit home whatever point his song is trying to make.
Instead, we are trapped in a cinematic limbo with Nrbarz, as he glibly reals off his punctuation-light prose without pause. The fact the song has no tempo or key changes, no musical variation or discernible chorus, only serves to emphasise just how little is also going on visually – and despite that meagre run-time, it drags as a result.
Of course, I am not saying every music video has to have bells and whistles, to best market the song it features. Sometimes, a director might want to do a stripped-back vision for a music video. If you have access to a particularly charismatic musical artist, putting them front and centre to feed the audience just a slither of what a live performance might be like can be the most compelling option available. But Nrbarz is not that artist – and his musical storytelling needs all the help it can get to click with audiences.