Justin Timberlake’s “Suit & Tie” Video: Review Revue

Carl Williott | February 14, 2013 10:54 am

Justin Timberlake‘s “Suit & Tie” video arrived earlier today (February 14) and it was a swanky, sexy affair. The black-and-white clip featured Jay-Z in all his carefree one-percenter glory, JT nonchalantly busting a move and burlesque dancers writhing around on stage, all framed by David Fincher‘s expert hand.

But did it live up to the hype, or was it too similar to the lyric video? We happen to fall in the “loved it!” camp, calling it “artistic but not opaque” and noting “there’s a lovely cinematic quality to the visuals and enough swagger in JT’s agile dancing to carry us through.” The general feeling seems to be that it was enjoyable, if not epic…a big, breezy soiree. Head below to see how the rest of the web reacted.

:: Despite the flashy wardrobe and impeccable cinematography, Rolling Stone felt that Jay and JT were still the focus of the clip. Timberlake displayed “impossibly silky dance moves” and Hova continued his “rap-game Frank Sinatra look, lumbering to the mic, drink still in hand, to supply his verse with smoky cool from a cushy bar stool.”

:: MTV gushed, saying the video creates “a world we’re only used to seeing on the silver screen.” Much of that was thanks to Fincher, who was “at his finest” in a video that “hearkens back to the heroics, the romance and the sophistication of a time long gone, yet also manages to bring that era directly to 2013.”

:: SPIN also lauded Fincher’s execution, saying he “manages to make all those throwback moves look a whole lot more contemporarily chic.” The site singled out the shot of JT looking at music on an iPad, saying it is “the perfect encapsulation of what the song, with its ’40s big-band feel and casually up-to-date slang, sounds built to accomplish.”

:: Pitchfork, like everyone else, lauded the video’s classic feel, and also pointed out that “just when you thought you were watching an episode of ‘Mad Men’, in pops the anachronistic iPad.”

:: Stereogum gave it the “it is what it is” routine, saying the video “doesn’t have much going on conceptually, just a whole lot of footage of light choreography and recording studios and models, with Timberlake and guest Jay-Z always getting to be the coolest motherfuckers in the room. But it’s fun to see a glossy big-budget video put together by one of the best ever to do it.”

:: Complex threw out a bunch of adjectives that inevitably come to mind while watching the video: solid, smooth, suave and “downright classy.”

:: JustJared exclaimed, “We love it!!!” and fell for Justin’s “killer dance moves.”

:: Pink is the New Blog summed it up nicely: “1.) Um, it’s awesome, 2.) It’s also kinda what we expected, having seen the lyric video and the Grammy performance.”

Do you think Justin’s video delivered? Let us know below, or on Twitter and Facebook.