Kenzo Recruits Your Moms, Carrie Brownstein and Natasha Lyonne, For Its Latest Viral Video

Carrie Brownstein is your actual, literally, honest to god mom. In between slaying guitar riffs with Sleater-Kinney, writing her well-reviewed memoir, and subverting comedy with Fred Armisen on Portlandia, Brownstein somehow found time to give birth to you, and you love her so much. You comment “mom” on all of her Instagram pictures, because you want everyone to know you adore her and that you are her flesh and blood.

Now your mom has made her directorial and solo comedy-writing debut by stepping behind the lens for a new short film for Kenzo. Aren’t you so proud of your mom? You should be. Even if she does find it kind of weird that you keep calling her “mom.”

Yes, fresh off the viral success of their freaky fragrance ad directed by Spike Jonez, Kenzo’s creative directors Carol Lim and Humberto Leon hope to keep those YouTube subscriptions coming with the Carrie Brownstein film.

The six-minute flick explores that cool teen internet affectation of commenting “mom” on the Instagram posts of celebrities they adore, and wonders what would happen if that celebrity became your actual mom.

“I think I’ve just been really interested in the language that people use on social media, how it borrows from very intimate terms,” said Brownstein last night at the film’s premiere​ at the Metrograph theater. “That we would somehow transfer this over to strangers, to kind of broaden the definition of what mom means. To me, a mother is not only the most primal and first relationship we have, but is also the most complex.

“That you would then assign that as a term of endearment to someone you don’t know, to me is one of the most interesting ways that language is elastic. I’m always curious about those things, it wasn’t anything in particular. But those three: ‘Mom’ and ‘I love you’ and ‘Marry me’ those all seem very interesting to me.”

The film stars Laura Harrier (catch her in the next Spiderman movie) as a woman caught in a surrealist world in which her favorite actress, Natasha Lyonne, is assigned to be her real mother.

It’s great at first. Who wouldn’t want a perennial “It Girl” to be their mom? But things start getting weird when Lyonne starts taking on actual mom duties, that include whipping food from Harrier’s face and wondering who her new friend James is. Be sure to catch the note-perfect Mom-style voicemail Lyonne leaves over the credits.

Brownstein was first introduced to Lim and Leon years ago at a party the duo hosted in a skatepark in Los Angeles.

“They had a girl, like female skateboarders, literally skate across the banquet tables, to very loud punk music,” said Brownstein. “I just thought, who are these people that are full of energy and excitement and rebellion, but also making beautiful clothing and somehow combining something very refined with something very gritty and iconoclastic.”

They’ve stayed in touch ever since.

This actually is the second collaboration between Brownstein, Lyonne, Lim and Leon this week. Alongside Brownstein’s Portlandia partner (and Lyonne’s romantic partner) Fred Armisen, Brownstein hosted the fashion show for the design duo’s other line, Opening Ceremony. Lyonne walked the runway alongside other comedy stars, most of whom are also probably your mom.