Jacob Paddison

There are moments throughout *Obsession* where it almost felt like it was Todd Solondz going full horror — unflinchingly raw, pathetically honest, uncompromising in its drive to induce cringe upon the audience, and, above all else, hysterically morbid, especially in that final stretch where the film reaches an equilibrium of comedy and tragedy. There's a jumpscare here that is telegraphed very clearly but you still don't know *when* it's gonna hit, and then it hits, and it's absolutely horrifying, and then it keeps going and it ends up becoming the funniest scene in the whole film. You're only gonna get that kinda gag from a sketch comedian who's studied the art of timing. Inde Navarrette is putting up Wilt numbers in what might go down as the greatest horror performance of the decade. I need to see this again immediately.

Yeah I'd like to purchase your finest big fuck off crater please!

Exercises great restraint by withholding God Hackman from our screens for almost an hour, and by the time he does show up he disappears for another 20 minutes. But then we get to keep him for the remaining 45 minutes, and it's a hell of a ride. This is damn solid high-octane paranoid entertainment that echoes my beloved '70s political thrillers, refracted through a nigh-Y2K surveillance state aesthetic that is all too prescient. This shit is putting up *JFK* numbers when it comes to the cast, like why the hell do we have every '90s teen/dudebro/stoner comedy actor playing NSA agents? Jake Busey, Scott Caan, Jamie Kennedy, Jack Black and Seth Green, among many others (including Jason Lee for like 5 minutes). I'm not against it, but it is hilariously distracting seeing 1/3 of *Shasta McNasty* chase down Will Smith through the back-alleys and rooftops of Anytown, USA.