I think one of the reasons the video doesn't work as well as some of her previous efforts lies in an internal contradiction in her image. Both "Telephone" and the video for "Paparazzi" were directed by Jonas Åkerlund, who seems unusually invested in flattening her expressions into a mask (and depicting her as a poisoner). But in her other videos, whether playing peek-a-boo in "Poker Face," flirting and fooling around in "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)" or nakedly grieving in "Bad Romance," there are moments when the mask seems utterly gone. In the contexts she sets up, that genuineness seems like a shocking act. So much of Lady Gaga's act is based on artifice, but sincerity might actually be one of her strongest assets.Check it, and the video out here.
Prison, Poison, Peril, Pulchritude
Lady Gaga's video for "Telephone" is up, and while it's definitely epic, I'm not sure it's much else. As I write in The Atlantic,