Runaway, the title of Kanye West’s avant garde, confusing 34-minute trainwreck, invokes a response correspondent to that of the title: please run away from this non-sensical Kanye West ego trip.

West’s music video provides a metaphor for his triumphant return to the music industry. The general plotline of the video includes a phoenix falling from the sky that rises from the ashes to be reborn again ( though the film does not clarify that very well.) The past year in the life of West is a direct parallel to this movie, with the VMA incident still lingering in the minds of just about anyone who is up to date with modern technology.

For those of you who have been living under a rock, West revealed his belligerent side when he burst on to the stage and interrupted Taylor Swift ‘s acceptance speech for Best Female Video with a “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, Imma let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the greatest videos of all time.” People eviscerated Kanye for his actions, and he was public enemy number one for criticizing America’s sweetheart T-swizzle. To be fair, Kanye was right; “Single Ladies” was a much better video. Either way, the public scrutiny inspired Kanye to work on his music, leading to West’s upcoming album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which has received nothing but good reviews prior to its Nov. 22 release. The same cannot be said about the film corresponding to the album.

To be fair, the first time I watched this video, I was perplexed in ways words couldn’t even describe. I was weirded out by the feathered girl who kept moving around all awkwardly (the phoenix), and the scenes without music made no sense to me whatsoever. After calling my editor and discovering the video’s actual plotline, I watched it again, only this time it was even more confusing. The only good thing about this film is that the music turned out to be outstanding and led to my immediate yet unsuccessful search to find a leaked version of the album on the internet.

Runaway, summed up in one sentence, is an unsuccessful attempt at filmmaking that combines quality music with meager acting as well as an abstract plotline straight out of a pretentious NYU student’s thesis film.

It is not a film to be watched, but instead one that should be minimized so the music can be listened to. I applaud West’s efforts but there’s a reason why he’s a musician and not a director.

Kanye, don’t quit your day job. (And be glad you still have one…)