Interview and Photo by Jordan Edwards
It's become cliché to call an artist genre-less, but there's no other way to describe Scene Queen. A sugary sweet hook can quickly shift to heavy metal guitars or a thick hip-hop beat.
Her latest single is a collaboration with 6arelyhuman that shows yet another side. "Stuck" is a dance song with a pulsing beat, Y2K energy, and hyperpop vocals. It's yet another element she can add to her unpredictable live shows. The singer-songwriter is known for commanding the stage at festivals and converting new fans.
Scene Queen describes this anything-can-happen approach as Bimbocore (also the name of her 2022 EP). Lyrically, she walks the line of humor and social commentary. It's less of a musical style and more of a philosophy.
We talked to her in Los Angeles about how she got this point and where her music is going.
Your new single “Stuck” features 6arelyhuman. How did you two link up?
We met up in October before my US headliner because I had just sent out an offer to support on the tour, and was so stoked that they agreed and figured we should meet up in person. Turns out our styles blended together really well.
How did you make the song? Did you get to collaborate together in person?
We met up with my usual producer Zach Jones and my other producer friend/songwriter Inverness in LA, and wrote the track and bounced a rough that day. Then 6arleyhuman went home to Texas and sent us back an edited version of their part and smashed it, so that ended up being the final version.
Could you see yourself making more EDM tracks?
I pride myself in doing music from all styles that feel simultaneously nostalgic and fresh, so there really isn’t something off the table for me at this point, especially given I went full country for my song "MILF."
You have a new record on the way. Is there a theme? What does the album mean to you?
I wrote the album about finding my sexuality and reclaiming my power as Scene Queen. So it’s a lot of tales about being young and single, and also a lot of anger towards the hardships that came during that time.
The way your songs shift tempo and mood is really unique. How long did it take you to find that mashup style?
I honestly just never go into the studio with the intention of making a specific style. I just write a bunch of crazy lyrics ahead of time. Then once I say them out loud in the room, my producer and I work together to make the general vibe and build it from there. I also pride myself on keeping everything on the table and not being afraid to take risks—subject matter or genre wise.
“MILF” is wild. Where did you get the idea to make a metal country song?
I honestly just wanted to prove I could make any style bimbocore if I tried, and I was listening to a lot of country at the time, because I spent the entire summer back and fourth from LA to Nashville.
The guitars in your music can be pretty brutal. Is there a metal band or bands that influenced that?
I think I listened to a lot of early metal and post hardcore bands from the 2000s and 2010s that in general influenced my style, but guitar-wise, since I change the vibe so much, it’s hard to pinpoint. The guitars can be influenced by anything from Emmure or Architects sounding to Rage Against The Machine to even pop-punk bands.
It feels like the presence and influence of women in rock is increasing. Do you feel the tide turning?
I feel like there’s a huge shift because women are liberating themselves within music. I feel like it’s so typical for bands to half-heartedly slap a woman as the first of four people on a tour in the smallest print possible and act like they’re changing the scene. I think what makes me the most excited is seeing how many female friends and peers of mine (myself included) just outright refuse to do tours without other women.
Have you always been into pink? Where did the Scene Queen aesthetic come from?
My entire life, my bedroom has always been pink, and pink has always been my favorite color. But when I was younger, I actively chose to wear all black to shows in order to fit in. Once I became an adult, I realized femininity holds so much power, and wanted to present as hyper-femme as possible. For me, that manifests in so much pink. And once I started being all pink, I couldn’t stop. I don’t leave the house unless I’m in it.
You’re known for your high energy live shows. Do you have a favorite venue or festival?
I honestly love playing festivals because I get to play to massive crowds filled with people who love my music, but also people that I can shock or win over with what I do, which is so fun for me. But also I pride myself on making my headlines a super unique and interactive experience, so that’s honestly where I thrive the most. Because I just love chatting with people and making jokes.
For more from Scene Queen, follow her on Instagram and TikTok.
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Girl, I Get It: ‘The Idea of You’ Review
If Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” is the song of the summer, “The Idea of You” is the movie of the summer
05.02.2024
It’s been a fun and flirty few weeks for film releases. Last year’s surprise summer romance Anything But You finally came to streaming and is sitting pretty on Netflix’s Top 10. Zendaya and Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers is all sweat, sex, scorn, and some truly fine tennis — no wonder it’s the number-one movie at the box office.
And now, the long-awaited Amazon Prime Video drama The Idea of You is finally-finally out...and the internet can't get enough.
After months of promo — and a viral trailer that garnered over 125 million global views across all social media platforms, breaking the record for the most watched trailer for any original streaming movie — Anne Hathaway’s turn as a single mother who falls in love with the most famous popstar on the planet is. Finally. Here.
Any clip of the film reveal what’s at its core: sizzling chemistry, Hathaway’s unfailing charm, and a sudden tenderness that reveals that The Idea of You is not just one more spicy mommy movie (sorry, Fifty Shades of Grey). It’s a character study of Solène, Hathaway’s character, who turns 40 and is a woman in search of herself. Where does she find herself? In the arms of a 20-something-year-old rockstar based loosely on Harry Styles.
Is The Idea of You based on a true story?
Directed by Michael Showalter, The Idea of You is based on Robinne Lee’s best-selling novel of the same name. The book’s now cult-like devotees slowly but surely gained momentum. The novel found a feral fanbase during those cold and lonely months of the early pandemic when everyone had the “Watermelon Sugar” music video on repeat simply to recall what outside air and human touch felt like.
But the book initially published way back in 2017 — doesn’t that feel like the Paleolithic Era? — just about a month to the day after Harry Styles released his debut album. This is significant because, in the years that followed, the book seems to predict certain events and themes in the popstar’s relationships — specifically his headline-grabbing love affair with Olivia Wilde.
The pretty much predictive elements of the book are proof of why Lee’s novel is so compelling. It’s not just about the fantasy. And it’s not, she insists, a fan-fiction — though she has admitted it’s based on Harry Styles as well as Prince Harry and Eddie Redmayne … interesting mix. It’s about love. It’s about women. And it’s about coming of age or coming into your sexuality, at a time when society has put you on the shelf.
Is The Idea of You good?
The Idea of You is bringing back the rom-com. Watching the film, I couldn’t help but say aloud: “we’re so back.” From a classic awkward-but-charming meet-cute to the sexy montages of relationship bliss set to upbeat music, The Idea of You does everything you want a rom-com to do. And because it’s been so long since we’ve seen a high-budget romantic comedy of this caliber — with Anne Hathaway no less! — it doesn’t feel trite, it feels refreshing. Invigorating. Addictive.
This is due in no small part to the stunningly sensual performances by Hathaway and her leading man, Nicholas Galitzine ( Bottoms and Red, White, and Royal Blue), who plays Hayes Campbell. Hathaway raves about her co-star's ability to create chemistry with anyone. So, paired with an Oscar-winning actress, of course, the sparks were flying.
If you didn’t believe in the characters' chemistry, the film would fall apart. The tension between them must be strong enough to withstand a world tour, societal judgments, and Sol’s own self-doubts. And this pair delivers. As you watch, you’ll fall in love with Galitzine, too. In interviews, he’s got the same quintessential British charm of a young Hugh Grant. On-screen, he’s every bit the magnetic rockstar that easily packs a stadium full of girls hoping to catch his eye and his heart.
For her part, Hathaway plays the somewhat farfetched role with grounded authenticity. She’s not the typical someone who gets swept away by this young rockstar. She’s a complex character who allows herself to take a risk. To meet her complexity, Galitzine has to imbue his own character with far more than rock’n’roll, fake tattoos, and that one little earring. He crafts exactly the kind of dream boy you hope is underneath your fave heartthrobs. Sensitive and boyish, but full of depth, Galitzine’s Hayes Campbell plays perfectly against Hathaway’s Solene — literally.
I get what Anything But You is trying to say — but did it get there?
For what it is, this film is spectacular. Give it a Teen Choice Award, a People’s Choice Award, and a VMA for the promotional August Moon visuals. It’s certified Fresh with a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. For too long, the genre’s been handed paltry budgets for trite storylines and left in the dust. But after years of being underinvested in and undervalued by the gatekeepers of cinema, The Idea of You proves why we should bet on character-driven movies about women.
Though we still adore many of those heroines from the rom-com heyday — that includes Anne Hathaway as Andy in The Devil Wears Prada or The Princess Diaries — there’s one notable difference between this story and the films of yore. Our protagonists’s age.
Despite Hathaway’s youthful appearance, Solène isn’t just some ingenue. She’s not a 20-year-old trying to make it in the big city. She’s not a naive Manic Pixie Dream Girl from a small town whose purpose is to introduce all the beauty in the world to a jaded man. And she’s certainly not a corporate Girlboss who just needs a man to show her there’s more to life. No, Solène’s a divorced mother and gallerist who is on her journey to self-discovery.
We meet her as she’s embarking on a camping trip in an attempt to find herself in nature. But when that camping trip morphs into a chaperoning expedition to Coachella, Solène is thrust into the giddy world of being a rockstar girlfriend for a man more than 15 years her junior.
Anne Hathaway says this age dynamic is part of why she wanted to take on this role. Some skeptics have asked why Hathaway is already being relegated to mom roles or why she took on a fluffy film, the hidden complexity is what drew her to it.
“For some reason, we talk about coming-of-age stories as being something that happens to you in the earliest part of your life, and I don’t know about you, but I feel like I keep blooming,” Hathaway said at the film’s SXSW premiere.
Indeed, the film focuses on Sol’s age from many different angles. There are the establishing shots of Sol forced to make lackluster conversation with men her age at her birthday party. There’s her toxic dynamic with her ex-husband and the sense that she’s trying to emerge whole from the shell of a bad marriage. There’s of course, the contrast between her teenage daughter (Ella Rudin) insisting she’s too old for the group August Moon while Sol herself has a steamy affair with its lead singer. But most of the focus on her age is external.
The Idea of You tackles society’s expectations and constraints of middle-aged women. It parrots back outdated attitudes slamdunk debunks them — by showing you that Sol is still sexy, thank you very much.
While looking like Anne Hathaway and being attractive to a 24-year-old shouldn’t be the metrics for one’s worth, they don’t hurt. But in Sol’s case, we don’t see much of her personal development beyond this brief tryst. What we do see, is the people in her life grappling with the external pressures thrust upon them by hyperbolic headlines and social media abuse.
“It’s because you’re a woman,” Rudin’s character plainly states. Yet, the film doesn’t get more nuanced than that. But does it have to? After all, we’ve seen this familiar trope play out in real life. Namely, with Olivia Wilde during the Don’t Worry Darling press tour firestorm. And I worry any further extrapolation would have resulted in a Barbie-type monologue.
At its core, The Idea of You is a step above fan-fiction but it achieves what the best fan-fics do: validate your fantasies. It says, hey [your name], you, too, deserve love. Love in this case is the attention of a Coachella performer (Sabrina Carpenter, call me), but it’s also the belief that you’re worthy of that attention. And watching that sort of lavish affection bestowed on a woman over 25 on screen is refreshing and thrilling.
Even more, it’s proof that the female gaze is ruling cinema and it’s here to stay.
How to watch The Idea of You
The Idea of You is streaming on Amazon Prime Video starting May 2nd.
Like all rom-coms, this movie is just as good if you watch it alone in your room, giggling and kicking your feet as if you’re watching it sleepover-style with all your besties. It’s also screening at a select number of theaters. So, check your local showtimes for tickets, take your blankets to the cinema, and giggle and gasp along with the crowd as you all fall in love with Nicholas Galitzine together.
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Be Gay, Do Crime: Olmo Schnabel’s ‘Pet Shop Days’ is a Thrilling Tale About Family, Vice, and Being Young In New York City
One of the most thrilling premieres from SXSW 2024 is this queer New York love story that will make you miss being young and stupid.
04.30.2024
When you’re a New Yorker, you can’t help it — talking about “the energy” of the city. Derisive and jaded as New Yorkers are, we become fanatical (though not sentimental) when talking about our city. But no matter the specifics we dredge up, it always comes down to that intangible feeling of being in —and of — New York. That elusive “energy” that’s so hard to capture in speech and even harder to render on film or TV in a way that does justice to the city.
Think of the rare cinema that manages to make New York feel like New York. Imbued with that energy, that spirit, but also told each time from a refreshing perspective. It’s why Breakfast at Tiffany's and Taxi Driver can seem to be polar opposite films but both tell a true story about Manhattan. It’s why, watching Pet Shop Days, I was instantly transported to a city I know and love. Yet it felt so new in this violent, sex-fueled saga about coming of age and in love in the greatest city in the world.
“It’s a fantasy that talks about a lot of real, tangible things, but it's definitely a New York fantasy,” explained Director Olmo Schnabel about his thrilling, visionary debut.
But what is this fantasy of? The city? Love? Being young and reckless in New York? Although there’s something approaching romance in the film’s premise, it doesn’t paint a romantic picture of any of the themes it explores — family, queerness, youth. Instead, it takes you to the underbelly of the city, like Orpheus journeying to Hades, and dares you to glance back at your own coming of age and all its messy, regrettable, but unforgettably intense parts of your past.
Much like its main character Alejandro (Dario Yazbek Bernal) seduces Jack (Jack Irv), this is how Pet Shop Days seduces you: by inviting you to explore your darkest impulses.
“Right now, everything's so censored and calculated,” says Schnabel about why he made such a film. “I thought that the film and the ideas behind it were very free.” He hopes audiences feel that freedom, too, in every part of this journey. From its form to its characters, Pet Shop Days is rapid, unflinching, and high impact.
It follows Alejandro and Jack as they fall in love, fall into vice, and try to escape their lives and families by digging themselves into deeper, darker holes. All while running around New York City. With mesmerizing performances by its leads and a directorial eye that feels extemporaneous yet intentional. Pet Shop Days happens fast but leaves you slow.
I spoke to fellow New Yorker Schnabel alongside Bernal and executive producer Jeremy O’Harris about how this film came to be and what audiences can expect from a movie that does the unexpected at every turn.
POPDUST: What does this project mean for you? What made you get involved?
Schnabel: So my other lead, Jack, was my closest friend growing up. And he had written this script in college and sent it to me, and I thought it was really refreshing, exciting, youthful, and unapologetic. I thought that it would be an original New York story. I was thinking about what my first project was going to be and I thought, well, this is the one I could also really kind of leave my footprint in it. It gave me the opportunity to also put a lot of different things — maybe from my experiences growing up and my relationships — into it so that I could do this sort of exorcism therapy of putting things there and turning them into fiction and making it something that I could also just create a discussion around.
Bernal: I got the script a couple of years ago. Immediately, something in me said, Yes. And I think there was an aspect of myself that felt very close to Alejandro. Not even like, context-wise, it was just the feeling and the possibility of playing a character that was so out there. And that was really struggling with himself. I immediately told Olmo that I wanted to do this because I wanted to experience this — his world, what he's feeling, and what he’s living. And as Olmo said, it was a bit therapeutic as well, for me to just play with these things, and really go out there and play with something new in a different tone in a different city. And so there was something very cathartic about it. From the first moment I read it, I was like, Okay, there's something here for me, that I need to work with.
O’Harris: Coming from where I come from, I was able to escape Virginia by watching movies about New York. The energy that was inside of the script — we're saying “energy” a lot, but it is real, you know — I think that there was a sense, when new queer cinema started with movies like The Living End and Mala Noche, that there was this endless possibility of what kind of stories you could tell with young men. And I felt like I was missing those. When I witnessed the first cut of the movie, I was like, Oh my God, this feels like the kind of movie I would have found in the back room of Blockbuster and taken home, coveted, and imagined how I would run away from my family and create chaos with someone else in an effort to individuate myself. I felt like it was rendered so beautifully and with so much freedom, that I was like, Oh, is there any way I can be a part of this? And luckily, I could.
POPDUST: Visually, it's a very rich film. There’s a combination of a lot of small scenes that add a bunch of texture. And all of that comes together to ground the characters and the setting. How did you go about creating all that texture?
Schnabel: Immediately when I got involved, I connected with the story and I really imagined the world where this took place. It wasn't such a meticulous process for me to invent things. So I thought that the fact that I could just kind of respond naturally to my situations, and the circumstances was what made me feel confident when I was on set. The story was personal enough to me that I had the courage to be the person who's like, this is what would happen. And those are questions that everyone's asking — all the actors, like why would I do this? You need to be able to have an answer.
I think the thing I'm most proud of about the movie is that I do think it's an original New York story. Even in its dysfunction, at times. You can see moments and you could compare it to other films. But I also think that in its totality, I do think it's a very original New York story. I think that's very difficult. Because it's a place everyone knows, we've seen it hundreds of times in other films. So I think building something that felt original to us was a huge accomplishment.
Bernal: I think the movie was kind of showing itself to us. As we were doing it, everybody — everybody in the crew, everybody, all the actors — wanted to succeed. It's not easy to find that sort of atmosphere where everybody's giving everything for the movie to find its path. And that's one of the best environments you can be in because it's safe to try things. And when you try new things, you find new, new things. And the movie also had a personality of itself that was trying to be its own thing. Because I think we're used to seeing movies that are sort of premeditated or trying to fit into somebody's taste. And I think we needed a movie with personality saying, yeah, this is New York. This is how I see New York.
POPDUST: The form follows the plot, in that way too. You were figuring it out and so were these characters.
O’Harris: Every scene starts in one place and completely subverts itself. And I felt like that came from the freedom you guys had. I mean, one of my favorite scenes in the movie is the very first one. It starts in this Freudian way where you think, Are we watching lovers? Oh, wait, it's his mom? Oh, wait, now he's putting on her pantyhose? And it comes from a sense of play that I felt like was constantly on set with you guys. Willem [Dafoe] would take over a scene again, and again, and again, and try new things. I think that gave everyone else, especially the younger actors, license to also play and try new things — which is why there's that unpredictability.
Schnabel: When you're running around New York and you're doing some things legally, but some of it … clandestinely, you always have to be open to, when something doesn't work out or you lose a location or you can't film somewhere, it's like, okay, whatever the alternative is going to be, it's going to be better, and it's adding something. So it's embracing that element of surprise, and being confronted with challenges that actually turn into kind of privileges or advantages. You're not just stuck on one idea of how to do things, but you're open to kind of experiment. I mean, I definitely don't know everything, and I'm growing as a filmmaker. So I was also developing my language, asking those questions.
POPDUST: How did that shape the characters themselves? I felt there was a tenderness between them amidst all the violence.
Bernal: It's very interesting that you bring up the tenderness because I've always thought of it as a movie that is about pain. The pain of growing up and when your expectations or the ideas that you have, are not met, or they don't happen. And I think it's also a movie about a lack of tenderness. Particularly Alejandro. There is no tenderness for him. Nobody gives him that space for love. Jeremy and I were talking about this, but I also think it's a movie about fathers in many ways. And that sort of lack of tenderness in that relationship between men. Lacking … is a big — I think it affects you a lot. It's very clear how that lack of tenderness and that impossibility of just saying “I love you” completely gives way to all these things that Alejandro ends up doing. And so I think in retrospect, I see the character actually lacking that tenderness, and his pain is a craving for tenderness that he never gets from anyone, anyone at all.
Schnabel: At the beginning of the movie, with his mother, you realize that this person actually might have been someone who might have had their problems, but that had potential. But he creates his worst nightmare. What we realize is there's a line you cross and anything is possible after that. And there's a lot of manipulation and confusion. But the confusion comes from where these characters are at that time in their lives. Jack is easily manipulated because he's living his mundane life. And it's at a standstill, and he's not really motivated by anything. So with his attraction to Alejandro, he’s like, even though I might know it's dangerous, it's more interesting than anything else that's happening in my life.
Bernal: That happens to everybody. And I think that's why the interaction between them is so interesting. Because I think we can all see ourselves in that. I saw my teenage self in Jack. I was so bored with my environment that, obviously, anybody who had a bit of spark, I was like, okay, yeah.
O’Harris: Wanting to free yourself from that sense of safety to be alive is something I think we can all relate to. That makes it like really eatable to like some part of our imagined experience of living or moving to a new place.
POPDUST: What do you want audiences to feel as they experience this film?
Schnabel: Everyone comes in with their experience, and that gives people the possibility to have a different experience. It's not straightforward in the way that everyone comes out with the same messages. So I think it's openness, and the idea of creating a dialogue and having a discussion – and disagreeing. You can come up with your own answers. The most important thing is for people to be active in it, and to feel like they've gone through an experience themselves.
O’Harris: Watching movies like this made me want to make movies. The reason that these films exist is to tell people to pick up the camera, find a group of friends, say yes to each other, and just see what happens. And you'll make something that feels really honest and true to you. Because I like films that feel impossible to make when you watch them. Like how did anyone say yes? Like, how did you get allowed to do this? And like knowing that you're allowed to tell any story that's in your head? Is the thing I want from this.
Bernal: For me, it's just bringing people along for the ride. It's New York, it's love. It's violence, it's sex. It's Mexico City. There's nothing better than going in and watching a movie that takes you wherever it has to take you. And you see yourself in the movie. And you reflect on things that maybe you did or certain people you hang out with. In retrospect, you're like, okay, yeah, it was hurting or I was doing this because I wanted attention from this person or whatever. I want people to have that interaction – to think about themselves and also play out their fantasy. Like, I want to be the guy who doesn't care, that goes full-on and just takes it to the next level. Like, I want to have a haircut again. I'm just too scared to do it.
Schnabel: I really respect people who can just express themselves freely without feeling like they're going to be criticized. That’s the cinema I used to watch when I fell in love with film. Like Verner Hertzog and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. They embraced their fucked up characters and dysfunctional qualities. You're a passenger to all these different experiences, and that's so rich, and it adds so much to you. It's amazing when you watch a film and it changes you forever. That's why I do it.
O’Harris: Young people, for better or for worse, an entire generation of people have come to love movies through social media, and like Letterboxd. But because so much of the discourse about movies is like thumbs up, thumbs down, five stars, one star, I do think some people feel crippled by the lens their film or their story will have once it meets an audience. And I want us to get back to that place that a lot of people were in in the early 90s in the 70s, where they were sort of like, let's throw shit at the wall because we don't even know who's gonna see it, like, half our audience will never meet us.
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