By Ashley Carter

Cillian Murphy, David Fox, and a mummy. From Kevin Drew’s The Water.

You waited and you waited and waited and finally the day has arrived: Kevin Drew’s directorial debut—featuring Feist and Cillian Murphy—has dropped on Pitchfork and IFC. Wait, what?
Apparently Drew’s short film was shot over two days in Toronto last winter. Based around, titled after, and featuring Feist’s song “The Water” (from her 2007 record The Reminder), it’s kind of a glorified music video. Not unlike (but completely and totally unlike) Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Problem is, while the song itself is real pretty-like and all, it’s certainly no king banana song like “Thriller” which totally warrants a fifteen minute zombie-filled indulgence. Intentionally slow-moving (someone’s been watching too much Gus Van Sant), The Water is super easy to lose interest in and take some time to organize your desktop as the first bunch of minutes play out in near silence. On the bright side (SPOILERZ?), there’s a mummy. A mummy that is Feist. But mummies are clearly no replacement for zombie Michael Jackson.
Yeah, we don’t really know what’s going on here. David Fox is Scarecrow’s dad, cigarettes are often contemplatively smoked, and there’s a pond-frozen mummy love interest. But really, even if it’s not really your thang, or ours, there’s undoubtedly a market for softly lit films full of lingering shots of Leslie Feist and Cillian Murphy.
The Water will be hosted on Pitchfork for the next week. If you want to hear Drew and Feist talk about it, you can do that.