I don’t know if Curry Barker (26… ffs) has a girlfriend, but my guess is that he does not. I don’t imagine him to be an incel, more of a volcel… a voluntary celibate who is (possibly wisely…) entirely terrified of the self-annihilating effects of codependency and the very, very scary consequences of receiving unconditional love from a woman who will do anything for you. Anything.
I’m curious why you say it exists without mobile phones? The texting scene was one of the most armwrest gripping scenes for me. Anyway if you’re interested in more analysis:
You’re right. I guess my point is that most obsessions these days IRL are played out on social media and via cyberstalking, which is not cinematic and was therefore absent from the film (thankfully). My reviews are definitely not reliable sources of information! I write from a very subjective pov and will sometimes misremember or entirely block out elements which don’t suit my narrative. 🤦🏻♀️
Wonderful piece! Thank you for sharing it. And I don't disagree with you, tbh (although I think agreeing with people is overrated and at no point when I write a review am I particularly interested in persuading someone around to my POV...), but I guess I believe these things (the fact it was all ultimately Bear's fault and he is the reason for all of the destruction and damage, and he is - de facto due to her incapacity as a woman - a rapist when they have sex... etc etc etc) are knowingly built into the script. I guess if you don't believe the filmmaker is knowingly and intelligently creating these various nexus points of morally ambiguous dramatic fare, you'll lose faith in him very quickly. I think you did not trust him and (totally understandably) lost faith. For my part and for whatever reason, I believed Curry Barker knew exactly what he was doing (text-wise, sub-text-wise, sub-sub-text-wise....) and I went with it. Thank you so much for reading my review and thank you for sharing yours! X
I agree that if not explicitly, certainly generally. I don’t know, but you may be exactly correct. I’ll never encounter the dude and so I don’t really care exactly. I do care that either way, the damage that his screen offers us is difficult to reverse.
I’m curious why you say it exists without mobile phones? The texting scene was one of the most armwrest gripping scenes for me. Anyway if you’re interested in more analysis:
https://wordsinsteel.substack.com/p/obsession?r=1lpopa&utm_medium=ios
You’re right. I guess my point is that most obsessions these days IRL are played out on social media and via cyberstalking, which is not cinematic and was therefore absent from the film (thankfully). My reviews are definitely not reliable sources of information! I write from a very subjective pov and will sometimes misremember or entirely block out elements which don’t suit my narrative. 🤦🏻♀️
https://shapeofcinema.substack.com/p/obsession-2026?r=8dbojf
Wonderful piece! Thank you for sharing it. And I don't disagree with you, tbh (although I think agreeing with people is overrated and at no point when I write a review am I particularly interested in persuading someone around to my POV...), but I guess I believe these things (the fact it was all ultimately Bear's fault and he is the reason for all of the destruction and damage, and he is - de facto due to her incapacity as a woman - a rapist when they have sex... etc etc etc) are knowingly built into the script. I guess if you don't believe the filmmaker is knowingly and intelligently creating these various nexus points of morally ambiguous dramatic fare, you'll lose faith in him very quickly. I think you did not trust him and (totally understandably) lost faith. For my part and for whatever reason, I believed Curry Barker knew exactly what he was doing (text-wise, sub-text-wise, sub-sub-text-wise....) and I went with it. Thank you so much for reading my review and thank you for sharing yours! X
I agree that if not explicitly, certainly generally. I don’t know, but you may be exactly correct. I’ll never encounter the dude and so I don’t really care exactly. I do care that either way, the damage that his screen offers us is difficult to reverse.