After-‘Taste’: What Else Does Sabrina Carpenter Have Cooking?

SC for Sensational Co-stars, for Super Cinematic, Slightly … Criminal?, Sapphic Crisis?

Immediately following the release of Short ‘n Sweet, Carpenter dropped a ‘Death Becomes Her’ inspired music video, in which she starred opposite Jenna Ortega and Rohan Campbell. The video overall carries a constant contrast between what we are seeing and what we are hearing. Accompanied by a textbook horror scene eerie hum of a nursery rhyme, a steady POV shot brings us towards a pristine pink bedspread of a perfectly-placed shining armoury, establishing the lingering creepy but somehow aesthetic spirit of a world slightly askew, as a soft rose-coloured cushion threatens to swallow the shock of blatant violent images. This ‘Barbie serial killer’ quality is at its peak in this opening sequence but remains throughout the video, uplifting the listening experience of Taste with a hypnotic new intensity beyond the natural baseline and barriers of our tame day-to-day human experiences.

Seeing a simple stick of lipstick contextually defined as a weapon says a lot about this upcoming era, in which the lipstick-stain has already become a staple and threatens to never again separate its association with the shooting star that is Sabrina Carpenter. The stand-out grounding, tangible and yet oh-so-fleeting proof of this symbolism is the lipstick-stained tape, seen this June stuck on the mouth of Barry Keoghan’s character at the close of the Please Please Please music video, and now stuck across the mouth of a precious fluffy pink teddy bear, also acting as a touch of the prominent emphasised fake innocence of Carpenter’s recent creative endeavours. This subtle thread running through recent music videos - what the singer has officially coined, in a behind-the-scenes video of Taste, the ‘Sabrina Cinematic Universe’ - has already made an impression on certain eagle-eyed viewers and promises an exciting development in her career, as she walks the easter-egg path paved by icon, yardstick to pop stars across the globe and old tour buddy - Taylor Swift.

The realism in the live, diagetic, metallic sound of a knife slams us back down to earth, into the room, and animates real risk, as clever use of reflection on its surface brings both a second wind to what we have seen and a stealthy theft of breath at what could come next, watching the dancing movement of Carpenter’s excited, smiling eyes. The title comes to prepare us for a narrative adventure, arguably the god-tier of music videos, as clean frames of beautiful colour scheme and atmospheric lighting moving forward promise a visually stunning project, clearly the product of extensive creative effort. Continued instances of eye contact with the viewer as the narrative truly begins establish a genuine sense of intension that says ‘it’s about to go down’, as inconsistent lip-syncing highlights how typical defining characteristics of a music video are largely pushed aside in favour of the cinematic narrative to brilliant effect.

Then comes the first signs of yet another key takeaway of the video. Director, Dave Meyers, manages to hold a mirror to the male gaze whilst simultaneously capturing female strength and capability in the reflection. As Carpenter enters the bedroom set we see her holding herself strong in wardrobe that accentuates her body type in a kind of Hollywood-glamour rewrite of the femme fatale. The girls navigate the conflict with an exaggerated girly-ness interwoven into their walk, their way of holding themselves, in each shock and gasp, until it becomes categorically catty, Ortega going from looking fully capable with a weapon, to a sweet smile, to air-head level confusion within a matter of seconds!

Jenna Ortega is beautiful inside and out with some stunning looks and the incredible talent of a natural performer, pulling deep chemistry out of a vacuum and popping in and out of deadly with ease. The concept of the video, especially when we see elements of the fantasy and mystical introduced, sees the kind of fun, quirky, dark performance we love from Ortega, full of moments that send shivers down our spines, like that slightly crazed smile and the editing sorcery that allows Carpenter’s adlibbed laugh to come from Ortega’s mouth, a little foreshadowing for the dabbling in voodoo to come perhaps. Carpenter’s delivery is full of character, charged with unmatchable energy, unbothered and mocking to the end. The two share an uncanny chemistry and joyful spark featured in a pleasing break in character at the close of the video, the ‘SCU’ equivalent of a post credit scene, a just-a-girl kind of vibe that can’t help but conjure a smile, as well as a kiss that, funnily enough, is completely unrelated to that chemistry and more to do with some clever storytelling and editing. It is clear the same creative, intricate thought goes into every shot of the video.

An overall cocky, taunting tone spans genius camera work and comedic reveals like that of Ortega for her second entrance, perfectly timed on the words ‘guess who’ giving a new dimension to the lyric – as all good music videos should. The final product takes the concept of the song literally to produce a video of some of the best parts of cinema: the epic twists, the delve into the psychological. Each gory detail outdoes the one before, humorous modern gestures crack the third wall with impressive accuracy of impact, a youthful touch gives into temptation and invades the attention to detail for the sake of innuendo and artistic stunts and practical effects bring a limitless feel to not only the world of the video but the talent of Carpenter herself, reminding us of her multifaceted capabilities at a time when we have largely started to put her into a box. This video has established that we are still very much in a phase of play and as long as the fire burns the lake will not be freezing over any time soon.