Episode 17: 'Obsession' and Obsessed Films

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On today's episode, we are reviewing Obsession, from Curry Barker... as well as other films about obsession

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to Watch More Movies. I'm your host, Ricky, and today we will be talking about the newest feature from up-and-coming director Curry Barker. And currently, what's the biggest horror film in the country right now? That is Obsession. About two or so years ago, Curry Barker had his feature film, Milk and Cereal, that went viral. It's available on YouTube for free. It's a very effective found footage horror film that I really recommend you check out. Here he makes a big statement as a voice in horror with obsession. After a long time of not being able to confess his feelings for one of his close friends, Bear, played by Michael Johnston, buys a small trinket that lets you make a wish. Not realizing the power of this trinket, he makes a wish for his friend Nikki, played by Indy Neveretti, to love him more than anything or anyone in the entire world. This is the newest big deal, and for a very good reason. It is a story that seems a little familiar, but definitely not like anything else that you've seen before. It's very effective, deeply unsettling parable of a man who loves this girl and what happens when he takes away her autonomy to love him back and herself on her own. I don't want to get into specifics with scenes, but there are so many things about this story that are unnerving and have nothing to do with jump scares or lighting, although those things are in full force here and are astonishingly effective. The way that Bear uses this wish does not he does not listen to his friends' warnings and concerns, his moral hypocrisy around this without knowing the full extent. These are not things that you see all the time in films like these. I feel like if this was made 10, 15 years ago, there would be the cliche or POV of the lead character being a tragic hero or a sense of empathy, a strong sense of empathy that we feel for him. And in some small pin hot pinhole-sized window, of course we do. But at every turn this happens, Barker assures us that this is not the point of the story, and the horror of what happens when a man decides to essentially strip away this woman's right to choose for herself and what those consequences are. This is especially shown in flashes of the real Nikki poking through this cover over that's over her throughout the film. But that might be revealing a little too much, and I don't want to spoil anything more than that. Barker's camera movement and lighting are so in your face and obvious, but they are always so effective with his pacing and never feel redundant to a story that's some that are it's like this. Things are always in the dark because we are as well as to what's going on and what's taking over, Nikki. Johnson and Neveretti are absolutely incredible here. Two new actors that I had never seen before, and I hope they both get a ton of work because they blew me away with their with their range. Especially Neveretti, who has multiple aspects and performances in her role that are constantly changing at every turn. There is a risk to that direction and that kind of performance that could feel repetitive or unpredictable just for the sake of it, but this feels wholly earned and well within the story. I can't sing the praises of obsession enough, and I hope you all check it out because it's gonna be in theaters for a long time, and rightfully so. I want to recommend today some other films that involve a character being obsessed with something themselves or another person. There are so many like this that obsession you can kind of see takes from, and I wanted to stick to slightly more contemporary films with this topic. The first recommendation is 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley. It follows Tom Ripley, a con artist paid by a man and sent to Italy to bring the man's son home, who he believes Tom went to school with. Tom Ripley, as played brilliantly by Matt Damon, is a sort of sad and envious man. As he arrives in Italy to recover Dickie, played by Jude Law, he immediately has the look in his eye that he wants this man's life. His money, his girlfriend, his confidence, his personality, the friends he has, the way that people are drawn to him, when he walks when Dickie walks anywhere, people call him by his name from down the street and approach to talk to him like he's the only person in the world. Come into frame Jude Law as Dickie, this man who has all he wants and still goes after more. You can sense a bit of a fracture in the relationship he has with his father, but never stops the film to go into like a monologue about it. He has this charisma that Law just oozes with, and you can see why people love him and are drawn to him at every turn. The story is something seen before to an extent of a man who does not like who he is and is envious of the enigmatic, charismatic, and lovable Playboy type. It's very thrilling and very uncomfortable at times. Saltburn, which I admittedly had seen before seeing this one for the first time, does this play this story nearly to a T, beat by beat. But the talented Mr. Ripley, man, just take to take a lot more time with each supporting character and really give them their backstory without stopping the movie or a reasoning to why they're pulled into Dickie's life in person. I highly recommend the talented Mr. Ripley. Like I said, it's uncomfortable and thrilling and then quite fun for all of its uneasiness throughout. Saltburn is also a solid recommendation, but I'd recommend the talented Mr. Ripley first, as it is the better version of this exact story that we've have all seen before. Next up is 2015's The Gift. The Gift is a film that follows Simon and Robin, played by Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall, who moved to LA after Simon receives a job and they plan to start a family. One day they encounter Gordon or Gordo, a high school classmate of Simon's. After having dinner and catching up, they start to notice Gordon showing up constantly around places they visit, their house, receiving gifts from him, thus beginning a creepy, intense thriller. Like I said, it stars Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel Edgerton, and directed by Joel Edgerton in his feature film directorial debut. What I love about the gift is how restrained it is. Edgerton never feels a need to go over the top or make his Gordon character someone that is very cliche sinister or otherworldly or inescapable, despite how slick and sleuth-like he is. I like how there isn't a need for excessive violence either. There are small moments of things that are allude to this, but there's never a need to have him, you know, the creepy guy chopping people up or killing people for five minutes of the movie. He just goes from scene to scene and really taking his time with it. What happens when our past catches up to us and how those consequences are ones we accept or push back against? I really like how where Ederton had this theme going, or even how we were as people at such young ages, and how we grow up past those mistakes, or how we even are always those people and don't ever actually mature, rather than we just suppress that kind of part of ourselves. This is a really good thriller, and if you've not seen it, I recommend the gift. It's usually streaming free on Tubi or some other places, so the gift is one that I don't want to give too much away because it's slower paced, but it is also very rewarding in the end as far as uneasiness. Third up is Twinless from 2025. This is definitely a tonal change as far as the recommendations go. It is directed by James Sweeney and stars Dylan O'Brien and Sweeney himself. Dylan O'Brien plays Roman, who least recently lost his twin brother Rocky, who Dylan O'Brien also plays in Flashbacks. Upon visiting a support group for people who have lost their twins, he meets Dennis, played by Sweeney, someone who has also lost his twin, and is a nervous, shy, and kind of quirky, sarcastic guy. The two connect to their tragedy and become essentially the brothers that they lost as they both grieve those losses. However, things with Dennis's past are not quite what it seems. This is not by any means a horror or a thriller. It's a quiet drama with some comedy, quirky elements and romance thrown in there. The thrilling aspects come from these real-life interactions with these characters and how lies upon lies begin to tumble upon each other, and Dennis's world comes crumbling down. The thrills are the uneasiness and very strong, cringy awkwardness that comes from each of these people, and how I just don't want to get too much into it because there's a lot that I didn't even know about it going into it that really surprised me in the best way. So but I will say Sweeney manages to thread this delicate needle of making Dennis unlikable and being able to empathize to a tiny degree. No one in the right mind should go through with what he has done, but you start to see why he has this incredibly fragile person and is easily convinces himself of these things. Dylan O'Brien here is also terrific, genuinely one of his best performances, playing a pair of twins with distinct personalities and backstories, but truly making them feel connected and unique, like they were actually brothers, even though we never see them together, even in flashbacks. I really like Twinless, and there are not any twists per se, but revelations and uh big bigger decisions that get spoilery, so I do not want to get touched on it too much, but if you've not checked it out, I believe it's still on Hulu at the moment, Twinless. Fourth recommendation is 1990s classic directed by Rob Reiner, Rest in Peace, Misery. It follows the story of Paul Sheldon, played by James Kahn, a famous and successful novel writer who, after finishing his newest book at a cabin resort in Colorado, as he does with writing all of his books, he crashes in the middle of a blizzard. After waking up, he realizes that he's been saved by a nurse named Annie Wilkes, played by Kathy Bates. This may be the most well known of all the recommendations, but it is surprising to see a lot of people who have never seen it. It is a twisted, tight-knit thriller. Paul is tired of this famed book series Misery he's written that he's grown most known for. He wants a break from it, but only to be rescued and taken prisoner from his literal number one fan of them. James Conn plays reserved and frustrated so well, and a lot of it comes from his eyes and expressions. There are multiple points where you can't tell if he's trying to trick her, he is, or if he accepts his fate of being stuck there. And even when you do notice know his motivations, you still second guess yourself because he's so good at playing with those looks. Now, Kathy Bates has an all-time performance of anyone in the horror thriller genre. She has this look in her eyes filled with love, and as you find more out about her, she gives these same looks but with different context, and you still feel all these same things and new emotions, and that is all credit to her performance in one. The choice to keep the physical violence from Reiner in this film to a minimum and save for necessary moments is a testament to Reiner and his restraint. A film like this might be effective in today's landscape and have multiple mutilations or cutting bodies open or flashbacks where Annie Wilkes was doing something horrible, but he decides to keep it to psychological torture and violent exchanges of the performance is sometimes even more terrifying, which I also think is the greatest strength of this film. Misery is one you don't want to miss or keep on your watch list for too long. It's a classic for a reason, and it I'm sure would even feel better watching it during like the nice cozy winter, but you can honestly watch it at any point in any time of the year and get the same thrills from it. The final recommendation is 2024's A Different Man, starring Sebastian Stan as Edward Lemuel, a socially awkward, aspiring actor who has neurofibromatosis, I think that's how you say it, that has turned into a facial disfiguration. This is a black comedy that isn't afraid to show this man's insecurities and which have nothing to do with his face. Sebastian Sand gives his genuinely, I think, best performance and his pitch perfect year. The film ultimately isn't about a person who feels like his condition has limited his ability to have friends, get a job, fall in love. That's how he feels about himself, but it's not what the film is trying to tell us. What it really boils down to is how looks are placed on our society and what that does to our insecurities, or what insecurity that is already placed inside of us, and how men tend to lash out when challenged on that. And how our insecurities are reflected when society shows us what we're supposed to either be attracted to romantically or platonically, but when we don't overcome overcome those insecurities, in the end, that doesn't matter what other others think because we won't be satisfied if we don't get past that. Now, that sounds all very profound, but this is very much a film that you have to kind of look into. It's a very the humor at times is very dark, but not offensive by any means. It does tackle the complex nature of making art about someone different or what people might see as different, and what that means for people who don't have these conditions making art about it, which can be applied to anything really in arts, music, TV, film. So I love a different man. I hope you check it out. There's a lot of turns in this movie that really do get under your skin. There's a really cool scene and that feels body horror-ish that I loved. Um, so I hope you check it out. It's on HBO right now. So if you have HBO, go check it out. Now, to be honest, I had not planned to talk about this these films and obsession in this next episode currently due to wanting to get out the beginning of this next director dive. But after seeing obsession, I could not help but go talk about it. If you see it, please let me know your thoughts and theories because there's so much to unpack, and I know I only scratched the surface because I'm trying to avoid spoilers. But if you do see it, go see it in theaters with a crowd at nighttime. It is so well worth it. So thank you for tuning in today. Now, the next episode will be the first in a three-part director dive. That's all I'm gonna disclose to you right now. Like and subscribe. It helps with the show out a lot. You can follow the show on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, or on Apple, Spotify, YouTube. Also, going forward, I will be putting all of my recommendations on Letterboxed, which I do, but also other suggestions for the theme of the episode once it goes live. I usually have a long list when I do these episodes, and I only cut it down to five. So based on this topic, there are more on there. I just didn't include them in the show. So if you have more suggestions, comment on the list on YouTube or on Letterboxd and let me know your thoughts. And until next time, watch more movies.