Spike Jonze Shorts
Paying the bills
I can’t imagine what Spike Jonze gets paid these days to do a commercial. For the uninitiated, “commercial” is an understatement, as he always brings his whole creative self to a project. Sadly for us, Jonze’s film output is as minimal as a director gets: Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), Where the Wild Things Are (2009), and Her (2013). That’s it for his narrative work, and if you’d like an actual movie night, all of these films are brilliant, mind-bending work. But for those among us that desperately await the release of a new Jonze film, while respecting the process and whatever timeline he deems necessary, we must celebrate every bit of Jonze brilliance that comes our way, whether that’s a cameo role as a German director, a music video, or a “short film” hocking air pods. So let’s work backwards through some of the outstanding short form work that he does. Each could stand on their own as an Oscar winning short film.
What spurred this short of a post to look at shorts? Jonze’s recent release of his latest work, starring Pedro Pascal, and highlighting Jonze’s love of dance, which goes back to some of his earliest work.
Maybe his most famous music video was made back in 2000, and has recently been given the 4K restoration treatment from the original 35mm print. Yes this music video is considered that important.
Possibly my favorite because of the reckless abandon and fun that he’s clearly having with it, is this Gap commercial from 2005, which aired basically no where.
More recently, and before Margaret Qualley broke out in films like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) and The Substance (2024) Jonze directed her in another Fatboy Slim music video that’s actually a fragrance ad; whatever pays the bills!
Most similar to the Pascal AirPod spot, and for good reason since it’s also an Apple product, is this HomePod short from 2018, with music by Anderson Paak and an outstanding dance performance by multi-hyphenate FKA Twigs.
And lastly, the most endearing of the bunch, one that will hopefully get its own restoration someday, features Jonez himself as the leader of a local dance troupe in LA, street performing in front of a movie theater. A place we hope to see Jonez again when he’s ready.