As Laufey continues to remind why A Matter of Time won the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, she’s also reminding that there’s now a deluxe edition of the album called A Matter of Time: The Final Hour. To do that, she’s pulled out all the casting stops for her latest single and video, “Madwoman.” And, seeing as how Laufey’s sound has been called “retro” from the start, it’s only natural that she should set her stage for this video’s universe in the 1960s.
To help her in that mission is director Warren Fu (a prolific one indeed, but some of his most memorable recent offerings have included Dua Lipa featuring DaBaby’s “Levitating,” Doja Cat featuring SZA’s “Kiss Me More” and “Shakira’s “Don’t Wait Up”). It was Fu who characterizes the nature of the video as a “reimagin[ing] [of] the American Dream as something more diverse and inclusive.” Though, that kind of take on it only makes the final scenes feel more unsettling…as if, what, “Wasians” get to experience the American dream but it has to still be a sinister experience?
Before the eerie denouement, however, the video begins with the image of a fish on a plate just before a white gloved waiter/butler picks it up and hands it off to another waiter/butler who makes direct eye contact with the camera before hauling it away. Then, another pair of waiters (twins, no less—perhaps a nod to Laufey’s own twin status) prance by and also make direct eye contact with the camera. This ultimately presaging an “everyone’s in on the conspiracy” type of vibe that the video comes to embody.
All the while during this scene, the credits begin to pop up, announcing both Laufey and Hudson Williams as the lead players. Of course, anyone who doesn’t know who Williams is by now clearly hasn’t seen Heated Rivalry. In the next cut, Fu homes in on a hand ringing the doorbell before then offering a hokey “circle cut” to Laufey poking her head out of a room to go answer it. Finding Alysa Liu behind the door, it soon follows that Lola Tung and Megan Skiendiel (of Katseye fame) enter the space, all decked out in their pool attire. Which is exactly why, in the next scene, Liu and Tung can be found lounging poolside (which includes playing mahjong), while Skiendiel tries to get flirty with one of the waiters passing by with a drink tray. It’s all very Slim Aarons, whose photography served as key inspiration for the visuals.
As for Laufey, she’s busy sitting at a table with her “hot boyfriend” a.k.a. Williams while drinking tea. An appropriate time for Fu to cut to another “cameo,” even if not direct. For it comes in the form of Havana Rose Liu on the cover of a magazine called The Tea (with the tagline, “Spilling all the hot goss”). The headline on it reads, much to Williams’ dismay as he doesn’t want to get caught by Laufey, “It’s Havana Time! The starlet dishes on all her exes!” And to emphasize exactly which exes, there’s a circular inset of Williams’ mug right next to hers (along with a heartbreak icon). Although Williams tries to cover his magazine face with the teacup (one that, incidentally, features a caption [in cursive-y script] along the interior rim that reads, “World’s Best Situationship”), Laufey quickly picks it up to drink from it, immediately clocking the magazine and becoming enraged over it. All while Williams tries to shrug it off to the tune of Laufey’s lyrics, “I imagine how it ends/Up in flames, we’ll go again/Seeking chaos, can’t help giving into passion.” And it’s at the moment when the word “passion” finishes that she whacks him in the face with the fish from the first scene, sending him flying into the pool.
This maneuver is only to her disadvantage, as he soon gets out of it in that slow-motion way meant to highlight just how wet and muscular and generally hot he is. So hot that even Lola Tung has to look up from the magazine she’s reading (this one featuring a “cameo” by Chase Sui Wonders on its cover) and appreciate the “Greek god” nature of Williams’ body. Indeed, “Greekness” (or at least Greek myths and tragedies) is all over this particular Laufey track as she can’t help but feel like the Fates are not smiling upon her union with Williams at all. Prompting her to sing, “But there’s something so vexing about you/It’s like the gods above us don’t approve.”
Even so, she has to surrender to her feelings, declaring, “But still, I want you like a mad, mad woman.” In this regard, choosing to cast Tung, best known for playing Isabel “Belly” Conklin on The Summer I Turned Pretty, as one of her poolside friends was a shrewd choice. For it’s that character who might easily be described as a mad woman for wanting either one of the Fisher brothers at any given moment in the series. But, as Laufey explains of on-again, off-again relationships based on physical attraction, “Made it to the final hour [a nod to the title of her deluxe edition]/But the wine begins to sour/And I’m seeing myself in a dreadful fashion/Then the fog begins to clear/As I’m gasping at clean air/I remember how together, we’re so handsome.”
And yes, Laufey does remember just that as the sun begins to set on her pool party and she finds herself inside reapplying her makeup and looking at herself in the mirror—while also seeing herself sitting on Williams’ lap in the mirror and, naturally, musing on how good they look together. Which is ideal for the paparazzi-esque photoshoot that briefly ensues inside their house just before Laufey literally runs into the next scene (wearing the same ensemble she was at the beginning) where Williams awaits on bended knee to propose with a ring. And, although her initial reaction is to smile with joy as everyone around her proceeds to clap, all of the sudden, she appears to get this decidedly icky, uneasy feeling. One that prompts her to back up ever so slightly, but enough to knock over a bust that’s perched behind her.
When it shatters into numerous pieces, it appears to not only break whatever spell she was put under by Williams, but also make her see everyone around her for what they are: a fuckload of yes-men (and women). Now apparently frozen due to something related to the bust breaking/spell being broken. It (rightly) freaks her out enough to take the opportunity to flee the scene, running out to the driveway and getting in her car (with a personalized California license plate that of course says, “MADWMN” on it) to drive as far away as she can from this, well, madness.
There’s just one little problem, she realizes. But not before she proceeds to drive down the road in a manner that is very reminiscent of Samantha Robinson as Elaine Parks in Anna Biller’s The Love Witch. At which time she proceeds to look around the neighborhood she’s driving through skeptically, squinting her eyes to try and see what’s ahead, only to find that, in fact, there is nothing. The road simply and literally ends at a certain point. With nothing but a chasm-y darkness where the rest of it ought to be (in this regard, too, there’s a touch of WandaVision to the neighborhood—not to mention a dash of Olivia Wilde’s still underappreciated Don’t Worry Darling). And so it is that she finds herself “inexplicably” pulled back to the house where Williams and her so-called friends still are. In other words, either the spell has reanimated or she’s decided to resign herself to her fate with this “ugly soul,” however doomed it might be.
And though she returns with a look on her face that suggests a sinking feeling in her stomach—particularly when her three alleged friends are standing in the driveway appearing all Stepford wife-y with their robotic, plastered-on smiles as they rotely motion for her to reenter the house—Laufey still opens the door again. Drawn like a moth to a flame to this “vexing” creature. And when she stands in the threshold, there that creature is, smoking a cigarette out of a holder like he’s Cruella de Vil. No matter, Laufey knows she’s going back in for more.
With the final imaege being a pan-out shot from the exterior of the house, which is now steeped in the blackness of the night, Laufey and her twin, Junia Lín Jónsdóttir, who creative directed and helped come up with the story (along with Fu and Elissa Nechamkin), achieve the desired effect of making the viewer feel totally unsettled by this “love.” And yes, “Madwoman,” when paired with this visual, is a strong reminder that it is often men who make women feel mad (most commonly with their best “skill”: gaslighting).
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