Lana Del Rey's long-awaited "Tropico" short film arrived online on Thursday (Dec. 5), and the 27-minute passion project is just that: a work of overflowing, era-traversing passion.
Prior to the short film premiere, a press release revealed that "Tropico" would find LDR portraying Eve in a "Biblical story of sin and redemption." That's a pretty fitting description of the clip, which opens with the pop siren writhing in Eden next to her man (and a white unicorn, notch), as American icons like John Wayne and Elvis Presley approvingly watch her sing "Body Electric." Alas, the forbidden fruit is bitten, and a bolt of lightning blasts Del Rey and her love into a grimy present-day setting: the singer is a stripper moving consistently in slow-motion, while her counterpart is mindlessly running a convenience store.
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness," Del Rey says in a voice-over, during a striptease for some slimeballs in suits. That affair is broken up by a hellish robbery sequence, but the climax of "Tropico" is pure bliss, and features a captivating performance of "Bel Air."
Directed by Anthony Mandler, "Tropico" punctuates a winning year for Del Rey, who scored a Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with Cedric Gervais' "Summertime Sadness" remix and performed at Lollapalooza. On Wednesday night at a Hollywood screening for "Tropico," Del Rey revealed that her sophomore album, which will follow 2012's "Born To Die," will be called "Ultraviolence."
