Kenzo has a knack for making smart, often genuinely funny fashion films. Its latest one is no exception. Behold, "The Realest Real," which was directed by Portlandia 's Carrie Brownstein, who hilariously co-hosted the Opening Ceremony show with Fred Armisen on Sunday. (Suffice to say, she's tight with OC's co-founders, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, who are also Kenzo's creative directors.)
Billed as "a humorous exploration of the fickle and instant world of the internet," the seven-minute short features actress Laura Harrier arriving at the fictitious, creepy Institute of the Real and the Really Real. She's greeted by a no-nonsense, buttoned-up Rowan Blanchard, who advises Harrier that "smug/sad is a good combo" when it comes to pleasing her followers, who are literally, physically following Harrier down the hallway, IRL.
The film takes on how social media is responsible for "blurring the barriers between ordinary and famous." This should sound familiar for anyone who's felt intimately involved in a Kardashian's life via Snapchat, say, or affectionately commented on a celeb's #ootd as if it were a close pal's post. "Life's one long application," Mahershala Ali says, pointing to a massive wall's worth of floor-to-ceiling paper stacks filled with every email, tweet, like, and comment Harrier's ever posted. The film skewers phrases and words that pepper our feeds, captions, and comments across mediums, like "Marry Me," "I'm dead," and "Mom" as a term of endearment.
The popularity of "Mom" as an affectionate, not-literal term gets cheekily parodied. Harrier once called Natasha Lyonne "Mom" in a caption; so suddenly Lyonne actually becomes Harrier's mum. After an ebullient, giddy meeting between the two, it all goes downhill, devolving into a fight between Lyonne and Harrier's actual mum.
Check out the witty short below. You'll probably never look at your follower count or use "Mom" as a term of endearment in the same way again...
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