Sia: Elastic Heart

Sia went and just dug up one of the most controversial people at the time with Shia, and of course her muse Maddy. Its a cage, its interpretive dance, and honestly its a bit didactic.

It's a great song, no doubt! But the video is the best thing about Elastic Heart. Shia LaBeouf absolutely kills it in this video, a really good performance from him, without the use of speech. You can see the emotion

Let me just say straight out that I am not a Sia fan, so boo! and hiss! all you may at the stuff I have to say. I am here for Maddie Ziegler, the kid has a great future, she has every chance of being The Next Big Thing in movies, depending on whether the right script will come her way. But by the inflow of super-heroine titles, I am more or less 100% sure that Maddie will be a major draw-card in the next couple of years. For somebody who can move like this, like she was born in outer space or on another planet or something, I am thinking it... I'm sure movie creators are thinking it... Maddie is ideal for some Marvel/DC/whatever super-girl movie.

A long-winded approach to explain my involvement here. But you get the picture.

What have we got here? We have Maddie, fresh from Sia's CHANDELIER, a whirling dervish, cavorting about with Shia LaBeouf, in a high-energy dance routine, a big, burly man, and a tiny tiny little blonde kid. There sure isn't much by way of costume (or lack of it). Maddie's in the same CHANDELIER outfit (the style anyway) and the same blond wig. They are jumping about in a steel circus arena/ bird cage/whatever that thing is.

Now what strikes me as very, very unusual, however I look at this, is that he, for the most part, appears to be antagonistic, threatening her, like he is some big gorilla-like hairy- bodied bare-chested growling snarling caged animal and she is in this cage with him, outwitting him. Whatever the true theme, there are times when my impression I just mentioned, is the operative one.

So, what does this mean? What is this about? Aren't we on potentially explosive territory? In this day and age? At a time when everybody is ultra-suspicious? Pedophiles behind every bush?

Doesn't it make people very nervous?

And do people accept it (without any outcry) simply because they view Sia, and her unfortunate condition, in a different light?

Maddie is, at first glance, naked. A naked very young child. Okay, so she is wearing a body-stocking, but she sure LOOKS naked. It would take very little imagination to imagine her fully naked.

I am artistically-minded, open to anything beautiful, and I find nothing wrong with it. It is beautiful. Well, the female half of it anyway. Maddie Ziegler is a superb dancer, a whiz at moving about, a highly energetic performer, and a really pretty kid. But I am surprised that there isn't a long line of protesters. For beautiful as it is, innocent as it is, we live in a world that will view this video in a variety of sick ways. And it is a half-naked kid here, pitted against a huge, huge half-naked bearded man.

What I am really saying is that, if Britney Spears sang to images of an apparently naked child... Tarred and feathered, run out of town, set alight?

But Sia is not well, so she is allowed...