Cold War Kids 'Bitter Poem'

Cold War Kids take us on an urban fishing trip with the visuals for the Dear Miss Lonelyhearts track “Bitter Poem.”  The black-and-white narrative, which exclusively premiered on Esquire, is a directorial collaboration between the band’s long-time filmmaker Vern Moen of Paydirt Pictures, Jesse Gloyd, and bassist Matt Maust, based on a screenplay the three have been conspiring on.  Inspired by the largely unseen L.A. River fishing scene, the clip features actors John Ennis and Michael Gladis as they journey to the concrete alley to wet a line. 

The video gives a new perspective on the familiar barren backdrop of Hollywood films like Grease and Chinatown as the pair embark on one of the most classic instances of male bonding.  Moen’s patient, documentary-style footage uncovers this stretch of L.A. waterway, where nature and everything unnatural co-exist in the bizarrest of ways.  It could be a river in no other place. Glimpses of the two men standing in the concrete channel (including that of a conversation we cannot hear) subtly provoke until the final frame - a surprisingly moving shot of the day’s catch.
 

Credits

Director: Vern Moen, Jesse Gloyd, Maust
Production Company: Long Beach Film Company
DP:  Vern Moen
Producer: Robert Pierce
Editor: Luke Barber
2nd Camera: Brandon Vedder
Production Designer:  Matthew O'brien

Featuring Michael Gladis, John Ennis