What is it about nighttime drives through the city that makes for such cinematically eerie shots? Something about the flickering headlights and blurred passing cars that creates an unsettling sense of paranoia. Ryan Gosling used it to his advantage in Drive, as did Tom Hardy in Locke and DeNiro in Taxi Driver. Now, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who you may know from from 10 Cloverfied Lane and as Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, employs it in Honus Honus’ new video for “Santa Monica,” which sees her cruising around one ominous evening.
Honus Honus, a.k.a Ryan Kattner of Man Man, injects his trademark weirdness into “Santa Monica,” his 80s-tinged dark pop jam from his latest solo effort, 2016’s Use Your Delusion. It’s his favorite song on the album, he says, and is “a composite about a couple friends of mine who were letting bad habits take over. It was happening in such small increments to them that they didn’t realize it until a year or two later. By that time, they were almost an entirely different person that I didn’t recognize anymore even though I was around them all the time. They’re good now. Happy ending. You can always pull out of a nose dive. Just don’t go back 15 minutes later for another. Or do.”
