Following the release of Don Toliver and Doja Cat’s “Lose My Mind,” the F1 Soundtrack continues to style itself as the new Barbie Soundtrack (for not since said cultural phenomenon has a summer movie soundtrack been so hype) with yet another “blockbuster” single: Rosé’s “Messy” (not to be confused with Lola Young’s song of the same name, which has also been quite popular of late). In contrast to the electronic sound and fast-paced rhythm of “Lose My Mind,” “Messy” is the requisite ballad of the film (though it must be said that pop culture has fallen a long way down from a joint like Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”).
As such, it gets the privilege of a video that interweaves some of the more romance-oriented scenes of the film (centered on Sonny [Brad Pitt]) and Kate [Kerry Condon]). Whereas “Lose My Mind” is all about original scenes peppered with special effects and salaciousness (see: Doja Cat doused in motor oil occasionally doing what amounts to a riff on Miley Cyrus swinging from a wrecking ball).
But that doesn’t mean Rosé doesn’t have plenty of her own “high-budget” scenes to convey throughout the video. Which already screams “high budget” thanks to being directed by Colin Tilley (known most recently for such Megan Thee Stallion videos as “WAP” [with Cardi B, obviously], “Don’t Stop,” “Body,” “Cry Baby” and “Her”) and shot in Las Vegas. Indeed, part of the budget included shutting down the Strip to film a particular scene of her dramatically walking down the street. A moment that’s shown at the very start of the video (along with Las Vegas’ famed Sphere featuring none other than the “F1” logo on it).
However, it doesn’t take long for Tilley to cut to Rosé sitting at a bar with a martini (because when in Vegas…). The very same bar in the F1 scene that’s intercut in such a way so that it makes Rosé seem as though she’s looking on as Sonny and Kate, among others, play a game of poker that appears to involve betting with crystal (or just plain glass)-looking beads (think: the Mancala bead shape). Of the same sort that materialize in the next scene, shot at the Omnia Nightclub inside Caesars Palace. It’s here, amid the blue-hued lighting, that Rosé insists, “I want all of your complicated/Give me hell and all of your worst/Whеn the party’s over [how Billie Eilish] and I’m screamin’, ‘I hate it’/How bad could it really hurt/If tonight we just let it burn?” Ah, famous last words.
Continuing to maximize the use of the iconic space, Rosé does another belting out of the chorus, “So, baby, let’s get messy, let’s get all the way undone/Come over, undress me just like I’ve never been touched/Baby, I’m obsessed with you and there’s no replica/Maybe if it’s messy, if it’s messy, if it’s messy/Then you know it’s really love.” Or just a really good fuck.
Rosé seems to want to leave that interpretation up to the listener, as the word “messy” within this context can refer to the type of “reckless abandon” sex they’re having or the messiness of allowing one’s emotions to get involved in the wake of having this kind of sex (#oxytocin). Especially if it’s with someone played by Brad Pitt—who is no stranger to Las Vegas-set narratives thanks to Ocean’s Eleven. As for “why Vegas,” the video is simply mirroring the setting of the movie itself, key plot points of which were shot during the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Tilley also intercuts moments inside of Omnia when it’s actually jam-packed with people (and the performers doing their acrobatic swinging maneuvers from the ceiling), providing a sharp contrast to the instances when Rosé is shown alone atop a pile of crystals (or some other such shiny object). The melodrama of the backing track (produced by Lostboy and Burns) then amplifies as more scenes of Pitt and Condon (both in character, of course) are revealed in the form of forcefully kissing one another in a hotel room (surely not something that Angelina Jolie finds arousing in any way).
Not just any hotel room, of course, but one inside The Cosmopolitan with a balcony view of the Strip—which Rosé will also make an appearance on to take in the view of the “Eiffel Tower.” Almost as if she exists on a parallel plane to where this fraught romance is unfurling (sort of like Britney Spears with “Lucky” in the video of the same name). By the end of it, she’s back on the deserted Strip again, the emotional wreckage of it all perhaps leading her to rethink her cavalier attitude during the opening verse, “You and I are tangled as these sheets/I’m alive, but I can barely breathe/With your arms around me, it feels like I’m drownin’/If I reach for somethin’ I can’t keep/How bad could it really be?”
And so, with “Messy” marking her first effort for a soundtrack, Rosé proves her worth in terms of capturing the essence of a movie’s “feeling” and part of its story. But again, this ain’t no ballad on the level of “My Heart Will Go On.” Alas, perhaps it’s the closest pop culture can get to it in the 2020s.
