Film Review: Obsession

On this episode we dive deep into the worldwide hit "Obsession" and how it's completely upended the film industry and cinema as we know it.  Remember to like, subscribe, and add.

Transcript

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Hi there, and welcome to the Film Element Podcast. I'm your host, Mike Glant, and today I will be reviewing the new neon film, Obsession. Um I'm a few weeks late to this. Uh I saw the film about a week and a half ago, and it's been a film that I just haven't been able to get off my mind since I saw it. I absolutely love this film, and to be honest, I don't like doing film reviews of just random movies uh or ones that are generally in the mainstream coming out. When I talk about a film, I think what I am trying to do and my approach is to talk about the business of the film that surrounds it. And that's why I was so hot on Undertone about a month or two ago. And I spoke about the Canadian film, Nirvana the Band, the show, the movie, uh, and sort of the impact it had specifically on Canadian filmmaking. Um as time has gone on, it's sort of disappeared into the ether. But today I'm going to be to be talking about Obsession. And there's a reason I'm bringing this film up specifically, is because now that the dust has settled on is this or is this not going to be a runaway hit. Not only is it a runaway hit, but it might be the type of hit that changes z the genre and maybe the industry as a whole for a very long time. And we are now it is now in its, I believe its third week. This will be its third weekend, and it is on par to literally dethrone Mandalorian and Grogu from second place, which came out the week before, but came out a week after Obsession. So obviously on week two, Obsession doubled its box office queue on its first weekend. So on its first weekend, I believe it made twenty million dollars, something like that. Then the following weekend, it made almost another fifty, which is literally unheard of these days. For the second week of a film to open, for the word of mouth to be so good that it literally makes more money than the weekend it opened. And not only is that great that weekend, but that good fortune and that word of mouth is continuing into its third weekend. And Mandalorian and Grogu, which I'm sure was expecting, they had a very good first weekend. You know, it's a Star Wars movie. Was it at the top of the heap? No. I don't think anyone expected it to be. But I think they still expected the goodwill to carry over into this into the second weekend. And to a level I'm sure it did, but to be dethroned by a small little R-rated horror film that was made for $750,000 when your budget was $150 million, it's pretty astonishing. Um, especially a franchise that is borderline bulletproof. You can argue nowadays it's lost a little bit of its luster, uh, and it's not what it used to be. You know, I to be honest, I wasn't a huge fan of this new film. I had pretty low expectations. I think there's some great aspects to it, and I'm can't wait to show my little kids when it comes out on Disney Plus. But am I going to go back to the theater and watch it? No. Um, and that's you know, I like I saw the last Skywalker movie, was it Rise of Skywalker? I saw that twice, and I know everyone hates that movie too, but that was actually my favorite one of that trilogy. But anyway, we're getting way off on uh a tangent here. So let's talk about obsession. Obsession is, if you haven't heard about it, it's about a boy, probably in his early twenties, who uh finds a wishing willow, and the person who sells it to him very blatantly says it grants a wish, a single wish. He's in love with this girl, like many of us are at that age. There's somebody in our friend circle that just, you know, catches our eye. He obviously can't bring himself to tell her how he feels, so he breaks this wishing willow and says, I want this girl to be more in love with me than anyone has ever been in the world, or something along those lines. Instantly. Instantly, things change. And it's funny because it's the type of thing where you think, oh, he's gonna go to bed and then wake up, and then things are gonna slowly progress. But this film doesn't play it like that. It it happens within an instant that this girl is infatuated with her. And let's talk about this girl, Indy Navarette. I hope I said her name correctly. No one's gonna care though. Uh, she is. I mean, this talk about a star-making role, and I know it's been said many, many times over, calling her the new Scream Queen, all that sort of stuff. But I think that even underplays what she's actually doing and what's going on. I think this this might be the performance of a generation. I think there is something she is doing that she is locked into, almost. I mean, I want to believe it's calculated and she's that good of an actress, but I think she is also depicting something almost unconsciously that cuts to the core of all of us, especially those who have, you know, been around in their twenties and been through, you know, Love Lost and you know, the will or won't they situation. Um, obviously I can speak to that. I'm sure almost every person alive can speak to that. And this depiction of almost a pixie dream girl, but all also like a psychotic ex-girlfriend, but also well, and she's not alone. The actor that plays Bear, who makes the wish, and he's, you know, the uh lead character, he is doing some incredible work too. And I think the counterbalance to her craziness, but his fear of that craziness is uh so well performed and so well thought out. And I can't believe the director of this film is twenty-five with the insight into human nature that this person has that I don't think I've seen in you know, seasoned directors. Uh it's it's astonishing. And I also found myself not only was I horrified, obviously, at all the moments I was supposed to be horrified, but I was laughing a lot at all at a lot of the horror too. Uh it's it unnerves you in such a fun way. You know, when I was talking about Undertone a few months ago, I said that horror film is the type of horror film you never want to see again. Which I I then I ironically saw it twice. And it did not get easier the second time. But do I want to see it a third? I absolutely do not. Uh twice was enough. Uh the second time it scared me even more if that's if that's possible. I don't know how or why, but it did. Um Do I want to see Obsession again? Absolutely. I can't wait to watch this again with my wife, and maybe once or twice after that. I think this is one of the most fun experiences I've had during a horror film. And it's this coming of age relatability that had like this is a rom-com gone crazy awry, but with intense insights into what it's like to be 20 years old, stuck in a small town, but have this girl that you're kind of infatuated with in your friend circle, but even if you go and hit her up, it throws off the dynamic of your friendship. And is she even the one, or is it the one to the is it the other friend that is really the one you should be with? You know, there's all of these great little nuances and human interactions that are going on underneath the surface. And then all hell breaks loose when the wish is granted, and uh Nikki, freaky Nikki, becomes um this crazed, obsess, arguably a demon, and terror terrorizes Bear. But and there's a lot of commentary on you know, consent and uh the way that Bear has knowingly imprisoned Nikki in this person, in this demon shell body, because and spoiler alert, um, if you haven't seen it, I'm not sure why you're listening to this review now, but if you haven't seen it, just so you know, I'm gonna start spoiling, at one point she uh reveals that she is trapped inside this body, and she's begging Bear to let her out. And the only way Bear or Nikki can really figure out how to do that is if Bear kills her. Now clearly Bear is not going to do that. Um but you can the way he responds to Nikki is odd and very unbecoming and sort of shows his character. He's not just a nice guy. Now he is willingly um imprisoning Nikki within this body. I've heard uh critics say that the problem with this film is that Bear doesn't have choices. I don't necessarily believe that. I think he does, I think he can and does make choices, and he starts to sort of smarten up near the end where he tries to make another wish to undo his wish. But he takes a long time to get there, and it should have been priority one day one. But when it started, and you know, I'm sure you can argue that oh well he didn't really know that the wish was working. He maybe he just literally thought it was it was a a coincidence, and B, um she really liked him. And, you know, obviously we've all been in that scenario where we want to believe something like that. And uh so is it understandable that Bear didn't go and try and undo the wish right away? Sure. But I think at a certain point it becomes obvious that the wish is real and Bear is still trying to feel it out and see if maybe he can just get over this crazy hump and they can find some sort of equilibrium. Now maybe he's doing that to save his own life, and that can be an interpretation too. He's just doing that so he can stay alive, and maybe he just happens to not think of undoing the wish until the certain a certain point, you know. All of that, all of those are legitimate arguments, but um I think that and I think that's part of the fun of this film, of this horror film. I think that's part of the fun is debating uh what would you do in that scenario? Like how soon into a situation like that would you try and undo what has been done? Um we would all want to believe right away. We don't want to steal someone's autonomy, especially someone we claim to be in love with. Uh so yeah, in that sense, Bear is problematic in that uh arguably problematic. Uh but on the other side of that, Nikki and Indy's portrayal of this character is I mean it has to be a like I remember the feeling of watching Heath Ledger's Joker, and you just were enraptured every time he spoke, every time he walked into the room. You're like, what's he gonna say next? What's he gonna do next? We don't know. I feel like Indy and her performance of Freaky Nikki is is up there. I think this is something I don't think I've ever seen before. Um I'm trying to think. Uh I can't think of the actress's name, but the the girl who played Jobu Kabaki, I can't think of the character's name, but essentially Michelle Yo's daughter in Everywhere Everything Everywhere All at Once. Um that was a phenomenal performance as well. But it was wrapped around a lot of heart and uh you know a lot of crazy aesthetics went along with it. I think Indy is just doing something that, like I said, I don't know how she had the insight at her age if she's just really, really that good of an actress. I mean, why even have Oscars if you're not gonna give it straight to her right away? Um to me, she's a shoe, and I don't care if it's a horror, I don't care the fact that it's a horror movie, you know, the Lady from Weapons just won last year, so you know, that door has been swung wide open. Um so yeah, I love Obsession and I love that it's gett to me, it might be the horror movie. It might be my number one horror movie. I can't think of one that I like more. I have horror movies that got into my bones, like The Ring or The Exorcist, but how badly do I want to watch those movies again? Um no, it's obsession. And then if you want to go into the sci-fi horror, like alien aliens, do you consider aliens a horror movie? Uh you know, I don't I don't I wouldn't put it in the same category. I um otherwise then that's gonna be you know, that would something like that would be my number one. But for something that's just a pure horror slash slasher film, I think Obsession takes it. I think this is the best film I've ever seen, and it just goes to show the power of filmmaking, the power of storytelling, and the power of good acting. You know, Obsession was not a great-looking film, it was very dim and dark, and it had some very cool lighting effects, uh, with shadows. It played with shadows in a really cool way. Um, but I would say the aesthetic of the film was very drab, very it felt that's where you sort of felt the low budget aesthetic. But you know, horror film works with low budget aesthetic. We and you can't really put a finger on why, but um sometimes that it feels more unpredictable when you're watching something that feels lower budget or cheaper than a b mainstream big budget film, and I think it works to its credit. Uh so right now they think uh well, they know for sure Obsession will cross the hundred million mark. And that would mean it's made a hundred times its budget. Now, a friend of mine, a director friend of mine, was actually at the screening of Obsession when it premiered at TIFF. He went to two screenings of it. He went to the opening night and then he went to another one, and he was just telling me yesterday, uh, this is a director I'm actually working for as an editor, and we're directing uh he he just directed a horror film, so I'm editing a horror film right now. So I feel very connected to the genre right now. Uh and and actually this film, the film we're working on is fantastic and it has very similar themes to Obsession, so I'm really, really into it right now. Um they and he said that during the screening, the opening night screening, pandemonium broke out between many different studios who just got up out of their seat, started calling and shouting, and said, Get me this movie. Pay whatever you gotta pay to get it. And I believe it was between ten and twenty million dollars. Neon got got it for, maybe about fourteen. Um so the that's a start. You make a film arguably for $750,000. Now, is that the real price tag? Sometimes it's even lower than that. Sometimes they juice it up just to have a story out there. Um, I know that everyone says Undertone costs $500,000. All the articles said that, and I know that it actually cost less than that, uh, personally. So uh so you have that success story, and then I don't I don't know if Neon could have seen this coming. Uh I don't know if anyone saw this coming, but uh you know, when something like that happens, you know a film is special. Did anyone expect it to be this special? But it's breaking records, it's redefining cinema as we know it, it's saving the movie theater industry. Like if you think about it, just think about this for a second. If we didn't have obsession, and I'm and I'm going to do a review of backrooms. I just saw backrooms uh today, and I'm gonna I'm gonna do a review, I'm just gonna bang out a couple of these. But if you think about if we didn't have obsession and we didn't have backrooms, and the summer was reliant on Mandalorian and Grogu, which is already collapsing despite a strong start. Uh imagine what theater owners must be thinking. Imagine what studios everywhere. A24 was supposed to be the cool kid at the back of the bus that just came out with a hit once in a while. Same with Neon. Neon and A-24 might you can uh interchange them pretty much. And now they're dominating, they're not just getting the leftovers, they are now defining what cinema is. And I think this is an extremely important moment for all of us. Um as a f if you're a fan of movies, you must be if you're listening to a goddamn film review of some guy you don't even know. Um, but as filmmakers, as film reviews, and these are YouTube stars. Now, I I'll talk about this in back uh during my backrooms um uh review as well, but let's also be honest about the YouTube thing and the age of these filmmakers. Um I've edited many, many feature films, and I've watched directors get all the credit for basically showing up. I've directed too, and I've directed uh TV, and I had a showrunner who was very, very much in charge of what I was doing, and I wasn't able I could bring some sauce to the film, but it was very much his ship, both pre uh you know, during pre-production, production, and post-production. Um, and you know, that's part of the game. You have to understand that. Some showrunners do let you do what you do, and then others are very controlling. And I don't and the studio system is not that much different. When you do when you do a film with Warner Brothers or Disney, um, like if you do a Marvel film, it's Kevin Feige's film. You know, we saw that with Nia DeCosta. Half of the film she literally, they admitted she basically didn't direct. And then the rest of the film, which you can tell, is directed by committee, and it looks like it, and it's directed by less talented producers and you know, pencil pushers and lawyers, and it's why we're creating what we're creating. Even Mandalorian and Grogu. Dave Faloney probably had a lot of say in what that film was. Is John Favreau as good of a director as we're supposed to believe? He made Iron Man 1, and then that's basically it. Iron Man 2 didn't do much. Um he what they didn't even bring him in to do the Avengers like he was supposed to. Zathora. I mean, I love swingers. So swingers and Iron Man 1. That's that's John Favreau's real claim to fame. Um so, but those works are directed when you're in those big studio systems, they're directed by committee. They can say everything they want in I know a lot of directors negotiate final cut. Christopher Nolan is a good example. I'm sure James Cameron, no one's gonna tell him Scorsese, all these big names, Spielberg, all these big names, they probably don't have people to answer to. But a 20-year-old director, now that's Kane Parsons, director of backrooms. And then um, oh my god, I'm sorry if I don't I can't remember the director's name of obsession, but he's 25 and he's a YouTube kid. Again, they he might have been given a little more leeway because of how small the budget was, but I think there's a lot of great technicians, and A24, A24 has a mandate and an aesthetic. Now they're not doing TV, and the films are all supposed to be their own things, but they also have an aesthetic to maintain. So there even they are gonna have marketing execs and producers and executive producers sort of rounding the hard edges of these films so there is a unified feeling. Like they're not A24 is not just going to accept a director giving them a straight up rom-com that looks and feels like a rom com. If something happens, if they start seeing dailies within a week that look like that, they step in and maybe oust the director or you know uh become producer directors themselves. And especially with how young these directors are, they're not gonna be able to throw their weight around. Um now they might be able, now I'm sure it's a different story with how much success they've had. Uh so yeah, I I highly, highly recommend Obsession. Um I wasn't gonna do a review about it, but I figured everyone is so excited about it, and there's reason to be excited. So hopefully it just continues its fame and fortune. And uh thank you for watching. My next one I'll be doing a review on backrooms. So like, subscribe, all that good stuff. Thank you.