star-crossed: the film

  

Kacey Musgraves released her fifth studio album, star-crossed, two months ago.  With this album, she has steered further away from her country roots and created a record that is predominantly pop in sound with elements of folk, dance and rock infused throughout its 15 tracks.  The subject matter centres on her personal journey of heartache and healing (following her divorce from country singer Ruston Kelly after just over two years of marriage).  Indeed, the album has been described as a modern tragedy told in three acts, borrowing imagery and concepts from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.  Kacey told Vogue that the songs "were written chronologically" as she was navigating her healing journey and that "you can sense the trepidation, fear and longing".

She also released star-crossed: the film as a visual companion to the album on the same day as the album's release.  The short film premiered exclusively on Paramount+ and was directed by Bardia Zeinali, former Vogue visual content creator turned freelance pop videographer.  Kacey is the film's protagonist who goes on a physical, spiritual and emotional journey that mirrors her own life-changing breakup, healing and redemption.  The film includes nods to Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film adaption of Romeo and Juliet as well as Baz Luhrman's iconic interpretation of the play, starring Leonard DiCaprio and Claire Danes.  

star-crossed

The film opens with a scene from the 1968 film in which Olivia Hussey as Juliet discovers the "happy dagger" that will reunite her with her love.  Kacey is a gorgeous bride in a Moschino wedding dress, surrounded by fierce bridesmaids in bright colours and killer heels while a woman resembling Lady Capulet from Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet watches over the scene.  Kacey is then left outside a small chapel in the middle of the desert at night before the scene changes to a mall parking lot.

simple times

Kacey and her girls (rapper Princess Nokia, You actress Victoria Pedtretti and Drag Race queen Symone) serve Clueless vibes as they wander around the mall, even emerging from a Jeep reminiscent of Cher Horowitz's.  They meet up with their "heist gear supplier" (comedian Meg Stalter) who provides them with goodie bags containing ivory tweed Chanel suits, bedazzled balaclavas and medieval weapons, which they use to rob a wedding boutique. 

A news report on an old school television set (again, a nod to the news anchor who plays the role of the chorus in Baz Luhrman's film) breaks the story of the heist at the mall and shows helicopter footage of the getaway car, which drops Kacey off outside a church.

good wife

The church turns out to be a training school filled with blonde, robotic Stepford wives learning how to create domestic bliss for their husbands.  The scene features cameos from DJ-designer Harley Viera-Newton and musician Laura Love.

if this was a movie / angel

Kacey then dons a pair of angel wings similar to those worn by Claire Danes when she first meets Romeo at the Capulet masquerade ball in Romeo and Juliet.  She takes a very slow walk to her car where she puts the wings in the trunk before hitting the road.

justified

Kacey contemplates the unraveling of her relationship on her cross-country roadtrip, coming to the realization that "healing doesn't happen in a straight line" as she speeds through different landscapes (and emotions).  However, she is distracted by some painful reminders on her phone and this causes her to have an accident.

camera roll

We then see her car on its roof with many blood-red flowers pouring from its open door.  Kacey herself is literally in pieces, a physical representation of her figuratively shattered life post-breakup, with her decapitated head continuing to sing to the camera.  A team of chic paramedics/nurses wearing heels, headscarves and designer eyewear shows up to pick up the pieces and take them to a hospital in a retro ambulance.

easier said

At the hospital Eugene Levy appears as the surgeon who has to put Kacey back together (he makes a joke about her "feeling all over the place").  

keep lookin' up

After the surgical team successfully puts her body back together and restarts her heart, a nurse carries her to the L.A. River bank.  She is now wearing a silver breastplate which suggests that her heart is protected from future hurt.  She runs alongside a black stallion, radiating strength and resilience.  

there is a light

A narcotic-induced hallucination transports her into a church where San Cha sings What Doesn’t Kill Me before the scene morphs into a funkadelic disco wherein Kacey seems to dance away her remaining pain.

gracias a la vida

The final scene sees Kacey in the original white wedding dress standing outside the small chapel in the desert.  This time a neon sign advertising annulments for $15.95 blazes in the window.  She then changes into a flowing red dress and sings the concluding song to an empty theatre, accompanied by the guitarist who has appeared throughout the film.

I love the album (I'm glad I ordered a signed copy) and the film really pushes creative boundaries, ingeniously combining music, art, fashion and pop culture.  While it is essentially a breakup album, it comes across as cathartic rather than bitter, and is centred around self-exploration rather than self-pity.