Aaron's Thoughts
It’s not every day that you get to walk into a theater and watch a young writer/director announce themselves as someone we will be watching for years to come.
At just 26 years old, Barker has a control over tone, dread, and suspense that many spend an entire career trying to achieve. He has a singular feel for the thin line between something being terrifying and it being hilarious. And he’s so focused on telling a story that feels rooted in a real world that he doesn’t get bogged down by over explanation or showing every horrific moment.
Barker and his vision deserve a lot of credit for the films success, but so does Inde Navarrette. She gives a performance so bone chilling that it not only will put her on the path to becoming a star but will also be remembered as one of the all time great performances in the genre. The push and pull between a great actor and a great director is always fun to watch, but it’s particularly exciting in Obsession. Barker and Navarrette are both making the other look good in almost every frame. Navarrette’s performance would be great on its own, but combined with the way Barker use light and shadows to add depth to the performance elevates it in every way. Similarly, the movie is good at the script level, but if Navarrette isn’t bringing Nikki to life then I’m not sure the movie works nearly as well. Great directors make great actors better and great actors make great directors better. That’s on full display in Obsession.
I also love how mean spirited the film is. It doesn’t let characters off the hook & isn’t interested in tying up everything in a pretty bow. It’s bleak, raw, and unfortunately just as complex as the messed up world we live in.
*spoilers ahead*
Bear is a coward from the beginning all the way to the closing credits. He thinks that he wants a relationship with someone but deep down he doesn’t. He just wants someone that perfectly fits the mold of the relationship he has in his head. Essentially someone with no agency whatsoever. He thinks he should be able to have whoever he wants whether they want to be apart of that or not (which is maybe the most horrifying thing in the film).
Sure he’s insecure and pathetic, but as the film moves along it becomes clear that he somehow is even more evil than a conventionally “bad” guy because he has enough awareness to mask it all behind a “nice guy” facade. And the film holds back no punches on what happens when you encounter someone as emotionally stunted as Bear. You are left traumatized and surrounded by the mess they leave behind. All while you look around and ask yourself how the hell you got there.
Fantastic film!
