This video has it all, the music, the visuals, a captivating main character played by Lou Taylor Pucci, and a brilliant sub-story to the music video. The Jesus of Suburbia, our main character, later revealed to be Saint Jimmy, is a visual representation of the message of Green Day's award-winning album. Sam Bayer shows us just how to show a character without giving the character much to say. It really takes a dive into the broken suburban home. These teenagers, who all do drugs and smoke and drink and have sex, are shown to be these lost, pathetic freaks with nothing to do other than abuse substances. It leaves its mark on you. Masterful, a must-see in my opinion.
2 Reviews
Mediocre and overlong
Horst_In_Translation8 July 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"Jesus of Suburbia" is a Green Day song from 2005, so this music video for this one is already also over 10 years old. The tone in terms of color is mostly green, fitting the band's name, from start to finish and it tells the story of a young male punk living in suburbia, especially about his difficult relationship with his mother. I personally cannot say that these almost 12 minutes (very long for a music video) were a good watch. There is nothing really memorable in here. At times, it was possible to see the director's ambition, but it was also evidence of how his talent or approach was simply not sufficient enough to make this short film as impactful as he wanted it to be. And last but not least, the music by Green Day here is also extremely forgettable unfortunately. There is nothing in this overlong song that makes an impact, nothing that they have not done already during their long career and mostly better. I can only imagine that Green Day fans voted this short film so high as the rating is really inaccurate with quality and I as a neutral observer am not ashamed to admit that. I give this one a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
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