Obsession
"what's so bad about being with me?"
"I never was with you"
One of the most surprising movies of the year of quality and how I didn't see this coming at all.
Give Inde Navarrette an Oscar nomination god damn, her performance in this is top tier and she just cemented herself as a next movie star. BRUTAL performance, terrifying, subtle, tragic. From an actors perspective, you can always tell she was going for her objectives in the scene to get what she wanted from Baron and it was incredibly impressive. I'm taking notes.
I love the feminist aspect of this movie and the narrative it's weaving about what the incel and conservatives see and want out of women, this "trad wife" illusion who has no consciousness, no free will, no life outside their partner, and is only there to have sex with the other person. This takes that to its most brutal, dark conclusion.
The villain in this movie was never Nicky, maybe "the obsession" did a lot of bad, but ultimately it is BARON who is to blame for everything. His cowardice, his lack of principle, his misogyny created the monster that is the obsession. Not even mentioning the r*pe themes and stripping a woman of her consciousness to benefit for yourself and he had multiple chances to get out yet chose to stay with her the entire time.
Ian isn't much better, he hooks up with Nicky constantly behind Sarah's back and when Nicky is all of a sudden into Baron it's not because he cares for him or her to get them help. HES ONLY DOING IT BECAUSE HES A JEALOUS ASSHOLE. Shown by the billion dollars wish. I'm glad he got got at the end.
Sarah also was fucking tragic, maybe one of the only truly good characters in the movie, and she got slimed out before being accepted into university. Natural love completely destroyed by forced obsessive love.
Beautiful cinematography too, really enhanced the uneasy feeling of the movie.
Also the song choices and them being cut for dramatic effect worked wonders. Especially current joys.
The visuals and jumpscares were quite scary too especially Sarah's death but the screaming and quiet moments too were just as unsettling.
Curry Barker is cracked at directing, coming from comedy, you can tell he truly understands the science of how to lay out a properly good scare whilst also freaking us out with the implications and metaphors.
The cinema room I was in was packed full of people and couples especially, which, must have been really interesting to talk about afterwards. Everyone was terrified or laughing or on the edge of their seat or locked the fuck in. It was beautiful to watch.