Darren Aronofsky drops his video for Metallica and Lou Reed's "The View"

It's finally arrived. The Darren Aronofsky-directed Lou Reed and Metallica music video that no one asked for. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you "The View."

Aronofsky doesn't go quite as grandiose as you might expect here, but he does try his damndest to make a truly awful song seem artsy. Basically the entire three minutes and forty-five seconds consist of black-and-white photography of Loutallica performing their assault on the ears — I mean, "single" — with lots of ghost images. The effort is "filmic noir" and "possibly the best video ever made," if you take Reed's word for it. (Please don't.)

I suppose the video itself isn't all that bad. If it were for a better song, it might even be interesting and enjoyable. But just as you can't put lipstick on a pig, you can't put a gritty, poetic spin on a horribly ill-advised vanity project.