Billy Ocean's 'Loverboy' Is The Star Wars Cantina On Acid
I don’t know what I was expecting from this music video. All I knew going in was a still image of Billy Ocean belting out something strong. How could I possibly have known that he was doing so inside a floating, glowing space triangle.
Directed by Maurice Phillips, the video for ‘Loverboy’ contains a simple scene: A masked creature on horseback shows up to a sand cave, revealed to be a bar. He spots a woman sitting next to a wretched creature of scum & villainy and proceeds to shoot the bastard, make off with the woman, and ride off into the next adventure.
Also, that “woman”? Actually a lizard creature. Most of the characters in the makeshift sand bar are lizard creatures. There’s also a few guys walking around like a cross between the Cybermen from Doctor Who crossed with the Breen from Star Trek. To say nothing of the Tom Servo-esque Bar Boy.
The visuals and details are really what drive this entire thing. Honestly, having Billy Ocean be the equivalent of Max Reebo is just a really pleasant bonus.
The make-up on the lizard creatures is actually really convincing. It blends in quite nicely and isn’t garrish or crosses a line into being too over the top. Everyone is having fun, but they’re treating the material with the correct level of seriousness.
The whole video feels unpolished and lived-in. Which is to say it’s fantastic. Does it play a little too close to the original 1977 Star Wars? Sure, but who cares when everyone involved seems to be having so much fun. Just look at Billy Ocean. Trapped forever in the Phantom Zone singing “Loverboy.” He’s having a blast and why shouldn’t we?
Even the opening montage feels like a love letter to the work of experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage and how sci-fi filmmakers had long been using his visual tricks to convey a sense of the otherworldly.
There’s not a lot to this video, plot-wise, outside of what I’ve already described earlier. It’s an elevator pitch as old as film itself: Let’s run away. At any cost.
The best music videos show us a piece of a larger story, done in a way that suggests a larger narrative or world. One that we want to see more of. That makes us want to rewatch the video right after it’s over to catch new glimpses of that world.
‘Loverboy’ hits that sweet spot with a creative little space scene that has enough practical make-up work and visual flare to make us buy-in to this unexpectedly charming space bar in a low budget galaxy far, far away.
Shoutout to leslieleeiii on Twitter for the music video suggestion. You can recommend a music video for me to review by reaching out below:
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