Thirty-year-old actor Andrew Garfield is pretty well-known for his role in Facebook flick The Social Network and as Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. But after his performance in the new Arcade Fire video for “We Exist,” Garfield is likely to reach a whole new level of fame and intrigue.
“Our film follows the story of a young person’s struggle with gender identity,” writes the Arcade Fire.
The Huffington Post has already called it the performance of Garfield’s career, even after he generated Oscar buzz in 2010. In the six-minute clip, Garfield dresses in women’s clothes before heading out on the town, only to be harassed and physically assaulted at a country-hick dive bar.
His escape sequence is mesmerizing — and it takes him all the way to an adoring crowd at Coachella, where Arcade Fire performed last month.
It already feels like this video will be extended into short films (as if this isn’t one already), theatrical renditions, and other works.
It feels like this is Chapter 1 of this new superhero journey, one that’s equal parts Flashdance and Velvet Goldmine…