“Girl Walk // All Day.”
Hey there, Mr. Crabby Pants. Get a load of this.
Freshman director Jason Krupnick — with the help of dancer/bundle of joy Anne Marsen (from CBS’ The Good Wife) and Girl Talk’s album All Day — has produced an expressive, extemporaneous 90 minute music video of sorts in the aptly titled, Girl Walk//All Day.
The film (available for free, right now, on Vimeo) follows a day in the lives of three talented dancers, most notably Marsen, who storms out of a ballet studio to strut and bounce and jump and whatever the heck those other moves are all over New York City. Just as Girl Talk’s signature mash-ups provide fluid entertainment value, the dancing on display — an appropriate mix of traditional, hip-hop, and freestyle — feels right at home in its improvisation and spontaneity.
Girl Walk//All Day delivers exactly what it means to, as Marsen slowly enlists the enthusiasm from various Big Apple denizens. Several critics have made easy comparisons to Ferris Bueller’s classic parade sequence, and it’s certainly fitting, considering the absolute blast Marsen, the “Gentleman,” and the “Creep” are having on escalators, inside ferries, across terminals, throughout parks, on top of street corners. For a few moments, one wonders what these unassuming New Yorkers — those who don’t participate in all the body movin’ — were thinking with all of this inexplicable joy exploding around them. Krupnick doesn’t shy his handheld away from any of their faces, precisely so we can get a good look of some of their smiles.
In Girl Walk//All Day’s lone bit of dialogue, Anne Marsen scampers behind a pair of stuffy Hasidic Jews, who can’t help but confront her for an explanation behind all the dancing. Marsen simply says “Because I’m happy.” It’s not the most illustrative of reasons. Then again, asking in the first place might be the bigger issue.