Trent Atkinson | Slow Down / 2016 [music video]

no rush

by Douglas Messerli

 

MYLEN and Brandon Stansell (songwriters), Trent Atkinson (director) Slow Down / 2016 [4 minutes] [music video]

 

Despite the title of this song, country and western singer Brandon Stansell hardly ever seems to “slow down” in his output of gay narratives representing the sad and joyful incidents of his multiple relationships.

    In Slow Down he meets up while hitchhiking in the desert near Joshua Tree National Park with Rich Hill whose truck quickly overheats, a metaphor obviously for what’s clearly happening in the inside cab to these two handsome boys.

    The two are forced to find a small trailer park; and it’s all going far to quickly for singer Brandon Stansell, backed up by another gay country/western singer, Ty Herndon. His repeated chorus says it all:

 

Hearts beating at the speed of light

With your head laying on my chest

I get caught up in those hazel eyes

'Cause you're the kind of moments I love best

(Oh, woah, oooh)

I wasn't looking for the next best thing, no (oh, woah, oooh)

I was looking right in front of me

 

I'm thinking we could slow down

Take all the time you need on me

Baby, slow down

'Cause you and I together, We don't have to be

In a rush to fall in love

So let's hold on to every touch

And just slow down

Yeah baby, slow down

Yeah!

(Oh, woah, oooh, slow down)

Maybe we, maybe we (slow down)

Maybe we could slow down

 

    And slow down he does indeed as Trent Atkinson’s camera pours over Stansell’s and Hill’s bodies, including a soapy shower, as they wait out the day, and like any red-blooded Amercan boys take out a rifle for a little shooting practice.

    Having found the water they need, after a long afternoon nap or perhaps even a stay through the night, they return to the cooled-down pink pickup and get back on the road to get to whatever destination they had in mind. Yet it’s clear, in his rather campy gesture, that Stansell would prefer hanging out a bit longer in the middle of the desert.

 

Los Angeles, July 28, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (July 2025).