People are always saying, “Fake it till you make it.” (At least for the purposes of this week’s column they do).
In a work context, this means being confident and making it look like you know what you’re doing. Act like you belong in the room, and eventually, you will!
I have no qualms with “faking it” in this way. Who cares… unless you’re a pilot, surgeon, astrophysicist, or other job where specialized skills can be life or death?
However, in an emotional context, this phrase means “Act happy and maybe eventually you’ll be happy!” This I know is bullshit.
Faking or suppressing your feelings is an easy way to have a nervous breakdown, and can lead to a personality disorder that alienates you from your friends, family, and the world at large. (I should be a life coach).
This week’s double feature has both kinds of fakery, the emotional and professional sorts. I’ve also got a couple of other movies that fit that bill. Let’s dive in!
(Unless otherwise noted, all movies are available to rent from Apple, Amazon, etc. in addition to the listed streaming services. But if you watch them and like them, I’d consider buying physical copies 😃)
Double Feature: Morvern Callar (2002) and Afire (2023)
Both films are streaming on The Criterion Channel. Morvern Callar is also streaming for free on both Kanopy and Prime Video/Freevee (with ads), but it is not available to buy or rent on Apple.
This week’s films feature much-needed vacations and literary backdrops.
Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar is one of the best portrayals of psychological upheaval I’ve seen. It begins with the title character (played by Samantha Morton) finding her boyfriend dead by suicide on Christmas.
Morvern is catatonic. She’s snuggling with his bloody body, the red lights on their tree flickering across their tiny apartment. Later, she notices his suicide note glaring out at her from their computer, along with a copy of a novel he’s just finished. What next? I certainly won’t spoil it here.
Morton plays Morvern with a quietly mounting sense of instability, and Ramsay conveys this chaotic subjectivity through a flurry of scenes both irrational and unsettling. Morvern Callar creates suspense out of her emotional state more than any one narrative event; her behavior is illogical, yet it makes total sense.
Afire, from Christian Petzold, is about a buzzkill on vacation.
That buzzkill, a writer named Leon (Thomas Schubert), is heading to the Baltic Sea with his friend Felix (Langston Uibel) to stay at Felix’s family’s vacation home. When they arrive, they’re surprised to see the house is already occupied by a woman named Nadja (Paula Beer). Leon was hoping to use the getaway to hone his latest manuscript, but finds himself plagued on all sides by people who want him to have, ugh, fun.
Something’s gotta, and does, give. Petzold is very attuned to the uncomfortable personality clashes and insecurity seething beneath the script. When the wildfires on the periphery of these characters’ vacation abruptly stray into the foreground, I didn’t realize how emotionally prepared I’d been for such a disturbing narrative and tonal shift.
Other Movie Recommendations
Variety (1983)
This astonishing film from Bette Gordon is a psychological thriller that doubles as an irresistible portrait of counterculture New York City in the late ‘70s.
Variety centers on Christine (Sandy McLeod), an aspiring writer in need of money. She gets a job as a ticket taker at a porn theater in Times Square, and sneaks a peak at the films when she has a spare minute. (Spoiler alert: she has several spare minutes).
In the process, Christine starts to become obsessed with a businessman who frequents the theater. She even goes so far as to start following him.
Gordon’s film is a subversive tale of obsession, a portrait of female fantasy running amok in male-dominated spaces that are incredibly averse, and even hostile, to such things. As Amy Taubin put it, Variety may not be perfect, but it’s “one of the most powerful descriptions of the female psyche committed to film.”
Streaming for free on Kanopy.
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Martin Scorsese’s epic of orgiastic excess chronicles the ascent (or descent) of the stockbroker Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) to the elite echelons of American greed and the many people he went over, under, and through to get there.
This film, which turns 10 this month, is one of the master director’s greatest achievements precisely because Scorsese does not try to contain it. The Wolf of Wall Street is bursting at the seams with manic energy; not the bloody mania that sustains many of his other pictures, but a different kind of violence.
I wrote a lot more on it earlier this month.
Streaming on Netflix and Paramount+.
Next week, the faux utopian fantasia known as Barbie finally arrives on Max. If you have a good idea for an off-kilter double feature with Barbie, I’d love to hear it 🤠
Matt Erspamer is a writer and movie lover who lives in Seattle.
Any views or opinions expressed in this letter are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Watershed Voice staff or its board of directors.
