Madonna has unveiled a provocative short film to accompany her upcoming album, Confessions II, featuring an array of A-list celebrities including Sabrina Carpenter, Kate Moss, Richard E. Grant, and Benedict Cumberbatch. The 10-minute film premiered at the Tribeca Festival in New York and is now available on YouTube.
Star-Studded Cast
The film also includes appearances by Julia Garner, Gwendoline Christie, Honey Dijon, Odessa A'zion, Shygirl, Arca, and Madonna's daughter Lourdes Leon. Even Chelsea footballers Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro make cameo appearances.
Plot and Music
The short film is set to six tracks from the album: I Feel So Free, Good For The Soul, One Step Away, Bring Your Love, Danceteria, and Read My Lips. It opens with Madonna, 67, backstage at a venue, followed and filmed by female robots. She then finds herself in a forest, dancing through lasers. After dancing on a boardroom desk, she crashes her car en route to a nightclub, eventually arriving to dance with famous faces on the dance floor and in a bathroom.
In one sequence, she encounters A'zion, knocking a drink from her hand, while Grant parties in a stall with two women and Christie peers over the partition. Madonna sings, "He's a DJ? Hide the cocaine," as Moss lifts her head into the frame. Cumberbatch urges attendees to "get up and dance" while showing off moves by the urinals. In another scene, Madonna morphs into Garner, who was originally set to portray the singer in a now-scrapped biopic.
Steamy Scenes and Cameos
The film features risqué moments, including female dancers with legs spread as green lasers shoot from their crotches. Long-time friend Debi Mazar also appears; the two have been friends since meeting at Danceteria nightclub in the early 1980s. Mazar did makeup for Madonna's first video, Everybody, in 1982 and is name-checked in the song Danceteria alongside late DJ Mark Kamins.
Madonna described the short film as "a single, continuous piece, weaving together interconnected, music-driven sequences into an immersive cinematic experience." She opted not to make a traditional music video, feeling it would be "cheap." The film precedes the release of her 15th studio album, a sequel to her Grammy-winning 2005 record Confessions On A Dancefloor, known for hits like Sorry and Hung Up.
