Well-worn collaborators at this point (having already performed “Love Me Harder” and “Off the Table” together), The Weeknd has enlisted Ariana Grande to reinvigorate his recently released single, “Save Your Tears,” from the infamously non-Grammy nominated After Hours. And, as if the video for the original version of the song wasn’t controversy-stoking enough as a result of The Weeknd’s Fredric Brandt-inspired look, this one seems to favor a continued riff on Ari’s fembot approach from the “34+35” video (not to be confused with the “34+35 [Remix]” one, which also has unwitting fembot vibes despite the presence of Doja Cat—who herself joined The Weeknd for a remix of “In Your Eyes”—and Megan Thee Stallion there to offset an aura of basic bitchery).
“Directed” by Jack Brown (in terms of animation), the video takes its cue from a major trend of the COVID-restricted past year—which is to say, rendering its subjects in a drawn format (see also: Dua Lipa’s “Hallucinate”). In addition to continuing to play up The Weeknd’s possessive serial killer vibes that have been present in every video throughout the “After Hours collection” and its eerie, American Psycho-esque narrative, this iteration also has some decided Edward Scissorhands (no, not Edgar Scissorhands) flair. Mainly because The Weeknd is trying to build the perfect girl in the same way Vincent Price as The Inventor was trying to build the perfect boy (we won’t get into the homoerotic undertones there). Otherwise known as: a Barbie. We can even compare it to a Stepford Wives concept, to boot. And yes, it does seem a bit of a wack premise considering Ari’s constant claims of being a feminist (“God Is A Woman,” etc.) while also frequently veering toward a 1950s-era obsequiousness toward men.
Opening on a glass house (factory?)—and we all know people in glass houses shouldn’t throw fembots—the camera then pans down to show us the innerworkings of The Weeknd’s “lab,” where he pulls an Ari head without eyes yet attached from a box filled with “packing peanuts” (sometimes more poetically referred to as “void fill”) and places it on the conveyor belt. From there, we watch Ari’s journey from mere parts to full-fledged “woman.”
As for the song itself, Grande’s vocals, as usual, seamlessly complement The Weeknd’s. Harmonizing with her oohs and ahhs, Grande also adds in her own lyrics, including, “I met you once under a Pisces moon [specific]/I kept my distance ‘cause I know that you/Don’t like it when I’m with nobody else/I couldn’t help it, I put you through hell.” This said as The Weeknd pulls all the strings (or rather, tinkers with all the controls for assembly).
As her body is “formed” on the computer, yet another movie image comes to mind: Gary and Wyatt in Weird Science making their own Frankenwoman. Ari, too, has come to appreciate the horror-comedy vibe, having secured illustrator Jenny Richardson to do the artwork for her “34+35 (Remix)” visualizer video. Oh yeah, and let’s not exclude that the computer also makes one think of Cher Horowitz assembling her own perfect match… of an outfit.
The camera continues to engage in the ogling male gaze as it starts from the bottom and works its way to the top to sexualize this freshly made body. One that The Weeknd approaches to reach his hand out to in a style not unlike God reaching out to Adam in Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam.” And yes, it has to be said that most men still get off on the idea of being able to control a “fully moldable” woman this way.
When Ari adds in her own, “I don’t know why I run away,” well, it has to be said: maybe because you’re being held captive as a robotic “love slave” in an oppressive relationship (kind of like Hazel Green in Made For Love) even though it’s supposed to be the twenty-first century. Running away is a natural reaction…even from an unnatural being.
