a review of

i finished this before work this morning, and ended up weeping happy tears as the credits rolled. i can't even begin to remember the last time i cried during a horror film, let alone happy tears. this film is a truly monumental accomplishment. the writing steals the show, and the acting, *music* (omg the music) and camera all support the whole narrative nicely. i'm not even remotely sure how ullom turned this seemingly one-dimensional concept into such a gripping and rich meditation on life. that's the mind boggling art here. i think most directors would struggle to make an interesting film of any length out of this concept, and ullom had me glued to the screen until the final moment. i'm not even going to begin pretending i know what ullom intended this story to mean, but it brought me to contemplate so much about my existence. the terror of uncertainty. the allure of giving up and going along with the sedated masses in today's daunting world full of endless horrors. the never-ending struggle within leftist spheres between nihilism and whatever it means to eschew nihilism (even for brief moments) to attempt to believe in something, anything. the power that faith grants us to keep going (no, i'm definitely not talking about religious faith, i'm talking about the power that believing in anything at all seems to grant us). in the young characters, i saw so many facets of modern american society. i absolutely love that the grumpy, whiny, bitch-ass, white army country boy was the first to tap out by a (country) mile. first, he was annoying. second, it was such a delightful foil to the unfortunate horror trope of always killing off people of color first. i also saw glimpses of the folks who want to (for better or worse) ignore the reality of the horrors around them and try to bury their heads in the sand, covering it all with mildly-toxic positivity and escapism. i'm not sure that approach is without merit or worth, more that i wonder who is going to show curiosity and care to the people in the woods if every. single. person. runs away from society's problems. i saw the pull between the desire to give up in the face of the massive weight of it all, and i saw that balanced by james' desire to make any kind of meaning of it all, to keep going no matter what, to strive for something better even amid so much uncertainty. ullom makes the gorgeous decision of not really telling us what he thinks of any of it. not in the feeble, non-committal way we see from so many directors these days, but in the sense of what i believe art should get to the heart of. why are we here, and what are we all doing together? what *does* it all mean? *is* there a point to it all? how do we all derive joy and beauty and meaning from our brief time here? what does it mean to be conscious and alive? what does it mean to suffer? i've never seen a film like this. i expect it will probably be a long time before anyone is able to imitate this, but i'm sure it will go on to inspire other filmmakers. i'll definitely be re-watching this. if you watch it, let me know what you think. i'd love to chat about what it all means.