I Blame Society

A narcissist auteur goes full psycho to realize her ambition.

Retest of a tried idea, although I haven't seen it done from a female point of view before. This gets off to a ropey start, with a long scene that treads water with awkward performances, and then goes on to show us how annoying and unlikeable the protagonist is.

But wait! Once the change happens, I stopped thinking about the film and just got into the rhythm of the story as the protagonist became more likeable. There's plenty of clever satire on LA movie biz and relationships (with a David Lynch reference), but the sweetest irony is that the victims lead such detached lives that their patently fake suicide notes are convincing to those who knew them best - which turns out, hardly at all. The main killing goes surreal, with just the right tone. The end doubles down on the irony and satire, with a large dose of the American Psychos, leaving a pleasant sense of grimness.

The pacing was poor to begin with, but maybe the idea was to increase the sophistication of the production as the on-screen project picked up its own pace, with extra cameras and a winding dolly (overused gag), and more energy in the editing.

Performances were good. Music came on via too obvious orchestral stuff, but after that was good.

Overall: Fine addition to the honourable sub-genre of the 1st Person POV murder spree, but the early scenes needed more energy to carry the humour.

This movie exists on such small scale that it almost feels cruel to bash it, yet considering the effort involved in making nearly any other film, it also wouldn't feel right to give it too much praise either.

It just may be the most strangely meta movie you'll ever see. It's an indie movie, written, directed and starring the filmmaker about a filmmaker who chooses to write, direct and star in her own indie movie. It focuses on the rejection she receives from the film industry, and how her friends and family keep telling her the movie she's making (the one you're watching) is a bad idea. One can't help but get the impression that this is all painfully true to life, outside of a couple murders that assure you it's a work of fiction.

The messaging of the film is a bit muddled, taking some worthwhile shots at the prejudices that exist in the movie business, but ultimately amounting to whining about the worst millennial grievances. Being of the age bracket myself, I can relate to how rejection from arts jobs can sting in a special kind of way, but the belief that you're entitled to them is born out of such a mountain of privilege that you should probably just shut your mouth, or at the very least not make art about how much it sucks that nobody will give you money to make your art. However, with the title "I Blame Society", the entire film may be aiming to satirize this very thing, it's just a little unclear how self aware it actually is. At other times, it can be self aware to a fault, with the self deprecating humour drawing attention to it's shortcomings, and beating you to the punch of valid criticism.

Flawed as it is, I'll still commend Gillian Wallace Horvat for having such a bizarre idea and the tenacity to see it through to completion. She's an army of one who's undeniably made at least one more movie than I ever will.

Really creative. I thought the film was had a dark humor that fit like a glove into the story. It could have been very indulgent if handled differently. But as it plays out the film ends up being self aware in a really original way. I recommend.

Might regret that you started to watch. its so easy and smug in the start until all of a sudden your entwined into something very very cruel that you really regret you put on for your kids at your saturday family getogether by the screen.

its the story about the well educated, wannabe filmaker that noone will take serious, neither as a person or her recent work. she also has a mouthfull of bimbolistic chatter that only the most precarious and patient person are able to live with. so when all the naysayers has turned her into a ''looser'' on the filmfront, shes hit by a shot of ptsd and comes up with a sinister plan to make ''them'' believe in her, and that she can manage better than anyone, and that the completed product will create attention.

its a slow burner of a tacky horrorthriller, it has a dull start, but when the cooking plate is on full every sane person will remove the hand, cause when the boiling point is reached, youre in for a pretty gory autobiographic cv of a jobless filmaker.

the cast is very small on actors, they act fine though, the main does the pathinery into an art of itself, and the director has screwed together a story that possibly couldve happened in real life. the grumpy old man though who doesnt like films with tirades of chatter gives just 6 stars, but the idea and concept very good.

This has moments that really, really work. Black, dark comedy with a biting, cynical edge. The construction works for the most part but a few of the actors are really bad, and there are a few moments where the "fiction" slips due to too much camera work. But overall, I thought it was a strong, black comedy, especially for a no-budget movie.