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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1079 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 3, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I Saw Obsession (For Real This Time)

So I saw Obsession (2026) for real this time, and the discourse around it makes me feel like I’m taking crazy pills. All the rape/incel stuff is just projection, it’s clearly intended to be a metaphor for a codependent relationship between people who just aren’t good for each other.

The actual sequence with Bear wishing on the willow is obviously supposed to be a metaphor for Nikki genuinely latching onto Bear in a time of unique emotional vulnerability, not a rape scene.

The problems in the relationship don’t start until a few months later, when Bear begins to pull away. And unfortunately in his years of idealized pining, he didn’t notice that Nikki actually has pretty serious mental problems. There are major hints that Nikki was molested by her father (everyone in the discourse just seems to not pick up on that) and that she had a serious mental breakdown in high school: Bear misunderstands the “Freaky Nikki” nickname as implying that she was slutty, when it actually arose due to her genuinely bizarre behavior. Pay close attention to the way she acts before the willow. Her affect is already a little bit off (glib charm suddenly snapping into hostility). Ian’s concern isn’t just him being a cad, I think he knows Nikki has serious issues.

And Bear is a weak-willed drip incapable of handling Nikki’s worst impulses. She feels simultaneously suffocated and abandoned by him. The whole joke about the cat is Bear IS the cat, he got into something he didn’t understand and now he’s screwed. He’s certainly an ugly person inside, but not because he’s a bitter resentful incel. He’s just needy and narcissistic, and he’s willing to look the other way on Nikki’s mental breakdown way too long because she validates him. Then when he realizes the full gravity of her problems, he tries to dip out on her. The central thesis of the film is directly stated by the demonic phone operator in a line that everyone misses, right after it breaks the news that the curse is permanent:

“Huh, sounds like you have a moral obligation to be there for her....”

Bear’s sin isn’t getting Nikki into the relationship, it’s that he did it to only to validate himself and not because he really knew or loved Nikki, or wanted to take care of her.

Everyone seems to put a lot of weight on the scene where Nikki is talking in her sleep, but she’s constantly saying a lot of bizzare and inconsistent stuff both before and after the willow.

I really don’t know what the internet is smoking on this one.

In terms of a quality review I think it’s one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time. Vicious things happen in it, but it’s shot through with tragedy in a way that makes it feel very surprisingly humane. It’s not coldly sociopathic like Saw or Evil Dead. I think it’s no accident that the ending is a very on the nose reference to Romeo and Juliet. I may have been pretty rough on the two leads above, but pretty much every single character in the film is really likable and when bad things happen to them it’s genuinely sad. Even demon-Nikki is genuinely heartbreaking.

Pay close attention to the way she acts before the willow. Her affect is already a little bit off (glib charm suddenly snapping into hostility).

I read somewhere that, for the scene where Bear drives Nikki home (immediately before he uses the willow), they shot it twice: once with the actress given the direction that Nikki was romantically interested in Bear, and once with the direction that she only thought of him as a friend or perhaps a little brother. Then, they intercut between these two takes. (American Psycho did something similar in Willem Dafoe's first scene with Christian Bale.) I thought it was a clever way of representing Bear's uncertainty about whether it's a good idea to confess his attraction to her, but it also fits with the idea that Nikki is troubled.

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