Olivia Rodrigo is the poster child for chic road rage in the new “brutal” music video, which sees the emotionally turbulent teenager—who famously can’t parallel park—sitting atop a convertible in the middle of a Los Angeles-worthy multi-car pileup. In perhaps the video’s most meme-able moment, she whips around to stare at the honking drivers behind her and mouths a pristine “What the fuck?”
Directed by Canadian artist Petra Collins—known for packaging her work in youthful pastels—“brutal” is stuffed with enough Y2K nostalgia that it practically operates as a summoning circle for the return of Tamagotchi and Lisa Frank. In true Choose Your Fighter style, the “good 4 u” singer hops between looks throughout the nearly three-minute-long clip: Fishnets and a ballerina leotard, a TV broadcaster’s neon pink pantsuit, a silver bodycon fit à la Zenon, and a plaid schoolgirl skirt (complete with pigtails and flower barrettes) rank as favorites.
Predictably, Twitter welcomed this energy.
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The video effortlessly fuses Rodrigo’s signature playfulness with the desperation of adolescence—which is why that catchy, ominous guitar thrum serves as the video’s grounding force. It’s a fun jaunt along some of teenagedom’s most nauseating moments, a line Rodrigo walks with precision and flair in her debut album Sour.
“I write about what I know and what I am feeling intensely,” the 18-year-old recently told Variety. “The album is about heartbreak, but I think all the songs are sort of a different aspect of heartbreak. There’s plenty of emotions that come along with something like that: anger, spite, sadness, jealousy, longing.”
Watch the full video for “brutal” below.
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