dasfoo
24d ago
Just like the people who are easily manipulated by the 'meaning aesthetics' of school shooting activism, lonely kids can be manipulated by the 'meaning aesthetics' of the lone shooter. Neither is really thinking critically about what they are doing and why, they are doing it because it feels and looks powerful.
Her reasons for planning her crime are laughable, commonplace mean kid bullying, but to a kid with knee-jerk hormonal emotions, they will latch on to whatever looks like it will make them "cool." Many adults are no different, especially when they're online.
dasfoo
24d ago
On a partial second watch this weekend, I think it's a metaphor for trendy social media outrage and virtue signaling.
dasfoo
24d ago
I watched this when it was brand new a few months ago and just re-watched the first act this last weekend, which gave me a new perspective on it. Borgli's two previous films (both brilliant, IMO) are largely about the hazards of living in the age of social media. I'm pretty sure now that The Drama is another metaphor for the mind poison of social media interaction. The key scene is the confession, during which one character confesses an incident that most viewers agree was worse, and yet everyone becomes fixated on another character's confession of what is one of the most talked-about current "thought crimes."
I think Borgli is commenting on viral outrage and viral virtue signalling -- that it's more important to some characters to be seen to be outraged at something about which it is trendy to be outraged. It's much less appealing to evaluate the other individual confessions -- which all had real consequences -- when someone drops a mind-killer into the conversation. And, of course, the worst confessor is the most performatively outraged.
Pattinson's confusion through the rest of the movie is him trying to reconcile what he knows of and feels about his fiancee with what he thinks he should feel about her. On my initial viewing, I thought his character was the weak link, but I think he's supposed to be wishy washy, unsure of his own footing in the world, and easily tilted one way or the other, just how Borgli sees the online mob.
A form of this question comes up in the movie. This is hardly the point of it though. There are other movies abut male school shooters. Also, key to the movie is that the plan is never acted upon. I think your complaint is irrelevant to what the movie is about.
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