| Because when you comment on something 'controversial' — in any medium — you're already working from the standpoint that a decent size faction (maybe even 50% or more of the audience) is either not onboard because of some stilted political reason/sense of self, or simply too stupid to understand it to begin with. But let's back up. Taking any message out of the equation, I still think this works very well as a scary movie: it's wonderfully paced, has (at least) two major twists that you will never see coming, and is genuinely nerve-racking. It's well-acted and well-written. If you think that its message is too on the nose, I would understand. But not getting or seeing the message is on YOU. And if you think the message sucks, well, you've said pretty much everything we need to know about YOU too. So I think this doubles as a sort of litmus test as well as just 100 minutes of entertainment. |
I was on the fence until the bitter end, honestly. Not so much about the messaging and its overtness, but that it was attempting to do TOO much. Inserting a #MeToo thread into any narrative can be exhausting but attempting to double down on that idea by coupling it with one about gentrification almost sounds like a wokeism troll job on paper. But the genius of Barbarian is that it fucking pulls it off on both fronts. It made me think about each concept in a really meaningful way. There's no simple, one-to-one correlation between them, but how notions of power and trust (on both a personal and institutional level) form their dynamics, and — probably more to the point — how we perceive them as BIG IDEAS, is neatly flushed out.
This is the first real feature by Zach Cregger, a member of the comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U' Know which had a sketch show on IFC and performed live. That group's work has almost entirely alluded me outside of a few viral videos (the very funny "I want to kill the president" sketch comes to mind). I basically missed the boat on those guys, though that was probably for the better as I went in with no preconceived notions. Still, based on this pedigree, the Jordan Peele comparisons are impossible to ignore. It's really neither here nor there and, if anything, it amplifies the simple fact that both comedy and horror are really good outlets for social commentary.
And I think in this case, that background in comedy actually heightens the ideas, or at least makes their directness more palatable. For example, my main qualm with Get Out (which I still loved btw) was the fact that the on-the-nose messaging was a bit much. But here, it's almost always played with a wink if not for laughs. There's humor in Get Out but when it comes to the ridiculous conclusion and the ultimate broadcast of THE MESSAGE, it it's deathly serious. But in Barbarian, Justin Long's character is delivering the message with biting humor/irony right up to the very satisfying ending. The satire isn't only supposed to be impossible to miss, it's supposed to be funny! This is SO hard to pull off, but Cregger and all the performances (especially Georgina Campbell in the lead) do just that.
It really does everything well, all its 'plot holes' and 'absurdities' be damned. And I'm not even gonna get into all that, because — again — the choice of credits font says everything you need to know right from the jump: we've entered the world of a genre picture where tiny details like how did the killer/monster remain undetected for so long are literally besides the point. This is an outstanding film, easily one of the best of 2022, if not the last five or ten years. A masterful satire that's engrossing, entertaining and resonant. I'm probably too quick to hand out the ole 10 out of 10 here, but fuck it. I loved this movie. And it felt great to end 2022 WEEK on such a high note!
CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 662B - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 663 ⫸
⫷ EPISODE 662B - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 663 ⫸
Barbarian is a 2022 American horror thriller film written and directed by Zach Cregger in his solo screen writing and directorial debut. It is produced by Arnon Milchan, Roy Lee, Raphael Margules, and J.D. Lifshitz. The film stars Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, and Justin Long. The plot sees a woman find out that the rental home she reserved has been accidentally double-booked by man, not knowing of a dark secret within the dwelling. It was released on July 22, 2022.
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