Think the Bears are taking a break, so much like John Wick lunching between gun battles, so shall we.
I’m trying to watch NEW films. It’s not easy. Much like music, our brains seem to freeze by age 30, and rarely do our tastes radically change. We’re basically aesthetic, and maybe intellectual, Amish.
However, one of the great things about being around youth, whether they be students, nephews, church goers or randos, is they INSIST that [fill in the blank] is a MUST.
Of course, old folk roll eyes like a pavlovian impulse ‘nothing new under the sun…’ however, every once in a while – they’re right.
Such was the movie “Obsession”.
Now, as a classically trained aesthete, I REALLY know this is an ancient theme.
Be careful what you wish for.
Greek Tragedy is based on it.
“I grabbed a pile of dust, and holding it up, foolishly asked for as many birthdays as the grains of dust but forgot to ask that they be years of youth. ”
― Ovid, Metamorphoses
The basic premise is that human hubris often concludes what is BEST, but the universe often disagrees.
Or as the Rolling Stones twanged, “You don’t often get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.”
In film, “Monkey’s Paw” seems like a popular precedent to “Obsession”
“Obsession” absolutely falls in line, but much like Leonardo Di Caprio’s “Romeo and Juliet”, it is modernized.
I won’t go too much into it because I don’t want to ruin it, but it’s more than the superficial “boy likes girl” meme.
It gave me some bad Ex-flashbacks, that’s for sure! But for me, it can be a metaphor for the modern state of social media, tech, and romantic interaction which seems to be devolving to the point where this next generation barely dares, much less marries or procreates. I had a friend who used to go up to a group of women and ask ea to dance. One refused, he’s move down the line, ask the next. The odd part. It WORKED. At least one would say yes. He did the math. Didn’t give a fuck about rejection. Teens nowadays feel much safer swiping, playing Madden instead of actual live football.
Japan specifically is predicted to go extinct [without immigrant birth rates] in about 400 years if this trajectory continues.
But let’s pull back.
“Obsession” is just a good flick to watch, and it still should be out at your local movie theater.
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