Bo Burnham: Inside

I think on a typical scale I would give this a 4 or a 4.5 but factoring the fact that this was all alone essentially during the pandemic amazes me. This is really a depiction of the effect the pandemic had on some people. You see a man break. Watching this made me feel off at first. It brought an uneasiness that reminded me so strongly of the pandemic. I personally was not massively affected by the pandemic. Where I live restrictions were somewhat loose. My friends and I were still hanging out and I went back to campus for my fall semester. But it was still a global pandemic and to say my life didn’t change would be crazy. It was a weird, uncomfortable time and this evoked that immediately. Doing this all alone was so impressive. Because, for being in one room with no real production, it was stunning to look at. Really captures your eyes. The songs are incredible, I mean really genuinely good, and the visual add a lot. I saw this at the tail end of the pandemic and still listen to some of the music now, but the visual reminder rewatching this was pretty spectacular. It was funny, dark, twisted, intelligent, depressing, real, sexual, and so much more. It grabs that feeling of being stuck inside and doesn’t let go. That random horniness, the random depressive states, the random bursts of energy, bursts of contemplation, so much. Shout out to Socko for calling out the FBI for MLK, theoretically of course. I want to point out two songs specifically. They’re both at the end, That Funny Feeling and All Eyes on Me. Those are masterpieces of every aspect of emotion. That Funny Feeling hits like a truck and I can’t explain why. It pulls at a truly indescribable “funny feeling”. Funny in a bad way. Distrustful. Uncomfortable. Knowing something isn’t right but not knowing what to do. That song hurts me. All Eyes on Me is a banger. It is genuinely so good. It is a lot of emotion poured in to one song but it also slaps so hard. The visuals for it match the song on a different level, layered and out of focus. Some other random minor details I noticed that I jotted down was how abrupt the cuts were, I know he says it’s because he’s not a good editor but I thought they played great. Slapping from a whacky fun song to depressive, bleak, mundane middle pieces. Really emphasized the value of this project for his health. We see the progress of the pandemic physically in his hair and beard, with a great ending of his initial state before all of this. I really believe this was supposed to be a quick done project that he couldn’t let go of because of the pandemic. Anyway, thought the anti-suicide trying to convince himself basically in the worst way was funny, the self-crucifixion was so dramatic and funny. A lot of little funny stuff, little millennial style and cringe at times but other times spectacular. And the ending of finally leaving the room, just to be trapped on stage and begging to return was pretty great. Really a spectacular piece. “I’m a special kinda white guy.” “To distract me from putting a bullet, in my head, with a gun.” “Oh shit. You’re really jokin’ at a time like this?” “There it is again, that funny feeling.”