love this because i fell into the camp of feeling nothing but contempt for bear (his kind of lame/pathetic evil) and horror/despair for nikki especially with how she's left at the end - and i had supposed this was the basic/intended read of the movie, so i liked it and some of its stylings. but then i was similarly perturbed, a bit confused, and ultimately dismissive of the marketing and a lot of responses that were like "haha she's sooo crazy" and that's why this movie is a hoot! like huh? really appreciate your focus on the film's mechanisms and framings that really set up and rely upon this latter reading of it and how murky it makes its execution and reception...including mine lol thinking about what/how much i maybe was projecting onto it?? an eternal question
I'm so happy to finally read a piece about this because it's all I could think about when I saw it. The marketing campaign also heavily deployed the "isn't a crazy obsessive girlfriend funny?" angle, I understand why, but it didn't help people's read on the story and I'm sure caused many to not look beneath the surface of it.
always thinking about how film marketers need to answer for their crimes! it reminds me of the recent discussion in music re: geese, astroturfing, bots -- the marketing has morphed into its own full experience and it makes viewers' ability to anticipate or sit with a film itself so murky ://
my audience at the grove amc was full of laughter, someone even brought a bottle of champagne??? lots of boo's when bear made the wrong decisions, people clapped when he took the pills! but the biggest laugh was after nikki's scream after bear said it was a "boys night" and i was like oh no this is going to become a "women be like" instagram reel :0
love this because i fell into the camp of feeling nothing but contempt for bear (his kind of lame/pathetic evil) and horror/despair for nikki especially with how she's left at the end - and i had supposed this was the basic/intended read of the movie, so i liked it and some of its stylings. but then i was similarly perturbed, a bit confused, and ultimately dismissive of the marketing and a lot of responses that were like "haha she's sooo crazy" and that's why this movie is a hoot! like huh? really appreciate your focus on the film's mechanisms and framings that really set up and rely upon this latter reading of it and how murky it makes its execution and reception...including mine lol thinking about what/how much i maybe was projecting onto it?? an eternal question
I'm so happy to finally read a piece about this because it's all I could think about when I saw it. The marketing campaign also heavily deployed the "isn't a crazy obsessive girlfriend funny?" angle, I understand why, but it didn't help people's read on the story and I'm sure caused many to not look beneath the surface of it.
always thinking about how film marketers need to answer for their crimes! it reminds me of the recent discussion in music re: geese, astroturfing, bots -- the marketing has morphed into its own full experience and it makes viewers' ability to anticipate or sit with a film itself so murky ://
this is amazingly written. i was disgusted after watching obsession, especially when i saw friends raving about it and rewatching it 4-5 times.
my audience at the grove amc was full of laughter, someone even brought a bottle of champagne??? lots of boo's when bear made the wrong decisions, people clapped when he took the pills! but the biggest laugh was after nikki's scream after bear said it was a "boys night" and i was like oh no this is going to become a "women be like" instagram reel :0