Courtney Howard // Film Critic
OBSESSION
Rated R, 1 hour and 48 minutes
Directed by: Curry Barker
Starring: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter
In certain respects, Curry Barker’s OBSESSION is reminiscent of HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS. Not the sappy, saccharine romantic-comedy starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey, but the actual comedic satire picture book by authors Michele Alexander and Jeannie Long on which that film is very, very loosely based. The crudely illustrated, proto contemporary feminism instruction manual reads as a do’s and don’ts list, showing the crazy methods one clingy girlfriend (drawn as a stick figure) employs to land and subsequently lose a guy. Yet its hilarious provocation doubles as a horror film from the perspective of the man at the center of this gal’s affections.
Barker’s first studio film following his breakout feature on YouTube (“Milk & Serial”) seems to build on similar, slightly tweaked notions of gender politics while expanding on the “careful what you wish for” cliché at the heart of the terror-fueled tale about an average dude whose whimsical wish to make his crush fall head over heels for him reaps disastrous results. What the auteur delivers is an intense, ingenious, subversive spin on rom-com genre tropes filtered thru a horror kaleidoscope that’s all at once deeply upsetting, darkly hysterical and brilliantly observed. It’s a gas.
Lonely twenty-something Bear (Michael Johnston) struggles with anxiety. Though he has good friends – empathic art student Sarah (Megan Lawless) and backwards cap-sporting dude bro Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) – and holds a steady job at a local indie music store, his life isn’t really going anywhere. He drives a modest car and lives in his deceased grandma’s humble abode. His most meaningful relationship is the one he shares with his cat. Unfortunately, fate deals him a terrible hand when his furry friend gets into his meds and dies unexpectedly while Bear’s not home.
As Bear prepares to lay low for the night to properly grieve the loss of his beloved pet, his crush Nikki (Inde Navarrette) calls, urging he participate in their team’s bar trivia night. Since he’s desperate for her attention, he relents – only not before stopping at a witchy trinket shop to pick her up a necklace. Amongst the crystals, voodoo dolls and spellcasting ingredients, however, he finds “One Wish Willow,” a childish, throwback knick-knack that promises to grant the beholder their heart’s desire after snapping the contained branch. Their evening doesn’t go according to plan since Bear fumbles trying to ask her out and, later, she reveals she’s planning to leave town in two weeks. His last ditch effort? Casting a wish that Nikki loved him more than anyone else in the entire world. Hijinks immediately ensue.
There’s never any guessing as to who’s the true villain of this story. Barker makes it crystal clear Bear should be damned, robbing Nikki of her agency, violating her not just once with the inciting incident, forcing his wishful will upon her, but a second time once he sleeps with her and knowingly begins to actively participate in this sham romance, canoodling, kissing and spending every waking moment with her at his place. It’s at that point where it’s firmly cemented that Bear is a despicable anti-hero. We’re encouraged to admonish his poor behavior. We’re never supposed to empathize with him, even when he attempts to get out of his predicament. Nikki’s toxic traits of jealousy, rage and insecurity are weaponized against Bear, turning the tables on the underlying misogynist tropes endemic to romantic comedies, deftly utilizing these tools to make our anti-hero suffer for our enjoyment.
Things do tend to get murky when Nikki’s bad behavior starts to affect innocent victims once the dramatics inevitably ramp up. Barker experiences some slight trouble walking back from some of the irredeemable violence, specifically in the 3rd act. In its purest essence, it absolutely serves Bear right for his initial thoughtlessness casting his selfish wish. But it also adds a gnarly brutality that may or may not work for the audience in terms of keeping them entirely on her side since her psychotic outbursts are gruesome.
Barker and his crafts teams have also given the picture atmospheric weight both aesthetically and sonically. Since we view Nikki through Bear’s perspective, half of the time she’s shot in silhouette form, minus her defining features. She’s a cutout of the human she used to be, so her face is obscured as she lurks just out of porchlight, lamp or moonlight’s reach. Cinematographer Taylor Clemons conjures an emotionally evocative pull from the sickly, jaundice-color environments. Camerawork is static, giving the proceedings a Kubrick-ian vibe. Barker and co also occasionally perform some delightfully creepy, old school camera trickery when it comes to Nikki’s physicality. Audibly, her vocal intonations change, sinisterly morphing from a shrill shrew to a possessed devilish hag. Sound design fleshes out additional layers, gifting her with an unsettling sonic presence.
Though Johnston is terrific, effectively transforming from painfully shy to a harried, harangued weasel by film’s end, it’s Navarette who’s a total revelation. Her performance is like a mille-feuille of juxtaposing extremities. Though Nikki is guilty of demented, unequivocally deranged behavior that makes her paramour genuinely regret his wish, we continually empathize with her character’s hostage-like plight. Externally, she’s a psychopathic mad hatter of chaos due to her blind devotion. Internally, however, she’s desperately fighting the abuse inflicted on her unwitting soul. The stage is perfectly set to showcase her magic tricks during outlandishly horrific moments. Audience allegiance could possibly switch to empathizing with the perpetrator, but Navarette performs a tightrope walk so we relish seeing Bear punished to no end.
There’s never a dull moment, from Bear’s call to One Wish Willow’s customer service hotline (which adds much needed tension relief to the proceedings) to his confessional plea for help from his bestie (who’s like Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character from ALONG CAME POLLY). The unhinged events that transpire make FATAL ATTRACTION look like a cake walk. Yet, the glaring difference between the two is that Barker doesn’t for once let his deceitful protagonist off the hook. Comeuppance is key. The real monster driving the horrific happenings is the toxic guy in nice guy’s clothing – and it’s our pleasure to watch this coward live with his grave mistake.
Grade: A-
OBSESSION will be in theaters on May 15.
