Arcade Fire has released a new video for their track “We Exist,” off last year’s smash-hit album Reflektor and, in the spirit of Jared Leto’s Oscar winning performance in Dallas Buyers Club, it features Andrew Garfield as a trans woman braving small-town streets and a bar brimming with danger. As Win Butler sings Maybe it’s true/ they’re staring at you when you walk in a room, a hesitatingly consented-to dance turns into violent assault. As the storyline descends into escapist dream sequences, the dancing and spotlights feels right out of an 80’s vogueing classic, perhaps Paris Is Burning or a Madonna music video. The final scene features footage from Arcade Fire’s Coachella set, wherein Garfield stands before an adoring crowd on stage with the band. “We exist” repeats over and over like a mantra, desperately in need of repetition.
