an incredibly gen x film about incredibly gen x fears. overcommercialization, oversurveillance, the continued overreach of television into the space of pop culture.
ed harris is truly incredible in this, just a masterwork of a character. Jim Carrey is killing it. the moments where this film reaches into the specific horror of unreality are so tantalizing.
It's a balancing act of a film, for what it is. I feel like you can feel the gen x apathy straining against a sincere, terrifying horror at the center. I adore that horror.
There is a parallel universe where this movie was just a tad more sincere, a tad less gen x sardonic humor, where this is a true horror, and I think I might like that a bit more. There is also a parallel universe where this is a bit less sincere and it's straight up a comedy, and I think I would like that a lot less.
it's funny that this movie is about a type of person that now exists. There are teens now whose parents filmed them as toddlers, as young children, who are now dealing with that. It, I think, recasts the ending of this significantly.
I really enjoyed this, but man... I keep thinking about the version of this that would be a five star film for me. There is something very intrinsically 90s about the fear of "what if the world around me is fake" -- that's the End Of History anxieties, right -- but what I am much more interested in, at this point in history, is what it does to the soul to create that false world.
The anxieties of the 90s about the falsities of the world are interesting as a historical period piece, and I genuinely enjoyed that. But what I really want, what I want desperately, is a focus on the logistics. The backstage. All these little things that are glimpsed momentarily in the film and are so tantalizing.
Anyway I had a good time! Not my favorite of the End Of History genre but a real good time.