Post by Dracula on Jun 5, 2022 13:15:01 GMT -5
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair(5/21/2022)
Is the internet going to screw up the next generation? For that matter did it screw up the last one? These are questions raised by the fairly experimental new film We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, whose title refers to an online “challenge” that the seeming protagonist of the film, a young teenager named Casey has seemingly become obsessed with. The ensuing film is not a found footage movie per se, nor is it one of those “computer screen” movies like Unfreinded but it does take that format during certain scenes. My short take on this movie is that I think there’s an interesting idea at its core and respect a twist of sorts that happens in its third act, and in that sense I responded to it intellectually, but I don’t know that it was engaging enough as a viewing experience beyond that. Star Anna Cobb brings a lot to the film, in no small part because the actress is an actual teenager who looks like one and does bring a definite naturalism to her performance. Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun seems to have some real understanding about internet culture and the way certain people seem to become dangerously obsessed by “creepypasta” which looks pathetically fake to people not immersed in it. She seems to be subtly trying to format the film to replicate the experience of the internet by kind of limiting your exposure to characters’ lives to certain curated glimpses removed from context that seems to kind of obstruct the greater picture. Again I respect the experiment of that and it’s done for a purpose but it was also a frustrating viewing experience and the same can be said for the film’s intentional anticlimax. At the end of the day I think there’s definitely enough here to be worth a look but I can’t enthusiastically say I “loved” watching it.
*** out of Five
Is the internet going to screw up the next generation? For that matter did it screw up the last one? These are questions raised by the fairly experimental new film We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, whose title refers to an online “challenge” that the seeming protagonist of the film, a young teenager named Casey has seemingly become obsessed with. The ensuing film is not a found footage movie per se, nor is it one of those “computer screen” movies like Unfreinded but it does take that format during certain scenes. My short take on this movie is that I think there’s an interesting idea at its core and respect a twist of sorts that happens in its third act, and in that sense I responded to it intellectually, but I don’t know that it was engaging enough as a viewing experience beyond that. Star Anna Cobb brings a lot to the film, in no small part because the actress is an actual teenager who looks like one and does bring a definite naturalism to her performance. Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun seems to have some real understanding about internet culture and the way certain people seem to become dangerously obsessed by “creepypasta” which looks pathetically fake to people not immersed in it. She seems to be subtly trying to format the film to replicate the experience of the internet by kind of limiting your exposure to characters’ lives to certain curated glimpses removed from context that seems to kind of obstruct the greater picture. Again I respect the experiment of that and it’s done for a purpose but it was also a frustrating viewing experience and the same can be said for the film’s intentional anticlimax. At the end of the day I think there’s definitely enough here to be worth a look but I can’t enthusiastically say I “loved” watching it.
*** out of Five
