Pitchfork Forkcast: Video: Modest Mouse: "People as Places as People"

Video: Modest Mouse: "People as Places as People"

Meet the Parents probably would've been a much shorter movie-- and might not have required a lame sequel-- if Ben Stiller's character had been a tree. The video for Modest Mouse's "People as Places as People" imagines a person as not just a place, but a thing. In this case, a thing with pinecones, needles that require constant vacuuming, and sap that makes refilling the breakfast syrup a breeze. And he's making out with your college-age daughter.

Mom appears to be quite taken with her kid's arboreal new beau, especially his piano-playing. Dad is outside with the hedge trimmer, looking understandably pissed. Directed by Andy Bruntel (Bat for Lashes, Rilo Kiley), the video goes pretty much where you'd expect it to, but it treats its offbeat subject with an emotional gravity that makes all this doomed tree-hugging kind of touching. Just another reason why every child should be read The Lorax.

[from We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank; out now on Epic]

Thu: 05-15-08: 04:15 PM CDT
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