"Bryan Jackson casts two Bratz dolls in
Softly, a shorthand gay love story in the form of a music video. Accompanied by an electronica soundtrack, the video features a meet-cute via instant-messaging and a shower scene. Jackson films his vapid, big-eyed actors in pitch-perfect sets, including the doll-sized bedroom, outfitted with a miniature Eames chair, an orange messenger bag on the carpeted floor, and a bookshelf with tiny volumes on
Derek Jarman. At the end of the video, the camera pulls back to reveal a klieg light and one of the dolls in a director's chair, suggesting a metafiction that is both preposterously campy and strangely affecting."
