How do I pick the movies I write about here? I never thought about it but I think it's when 1) I have something to say after watching it and 2) I still have to get it out when I find the time and energy to write it down. It's this or I want to share or recommend a film. This is not a case of the latter. I don't think anybody has to watch that movie, which is why I was thinking about why I want to write about it. Anyway, I don't have to be able to explain why. I just have to accept that of all the films I had something to say about, it's this weird one I find myself acually writing about. Maybe I should write more often about movies to balance this one out with more positive things.
Baby Invasion is the latest film by Harmony Korine. I found some of his earlier films intriguing. Some just didn't give me anything. Some made me think. Some entertained me. He has done some things in his films that feel unique, experimental and new. Artsy, but in a way that I feel is not 100 % over my head. Art that I can get something out of. This is why I watched the new one. I can't say I was disappointed because I didn't know what to expect from it. I just knew it wouldn't be how I would expect a film with the same storyline to be if somebody else had written and directed it. But I can't say I like the film either.
What is it about? I'm asking because I don't really know for sure. It's about a video game that was made with the goal of blend reality and the game. Supposedly a trend formed online of people living out the narrative of the game by raiding rich people's mansions and killing everybody inside. The film consists of such a live stream, whereas the viewer is not informet whether it is a live stream of a game, an out-of-game raid or whether there is a difference between the two. I think it is at least implied that what we are seeing is not in game, but an actual raid. But that opens the question of why there are visual effects and game overlays then.
I don't dislike it. But I didn't enjoy watching it. It is a strain on my patience. I skipped some bits the first time because nothing (new) was happening. And I still didn't finish it in one day. After I finished it I made sure I didn't miss anything from skipping the most boring bits. Maybe it's not boring to people who watch video game streams or their recordings. I can't say.
The overall visual impression, especially the visual effects, which are plentiful and obtrusively extensive, look out of place and purposless. They remind of an 1980s art clip by somebody who just found access to video effects and filters and wants to use them all, but with modern AI effects. It is these effects and the constant trance music from some generic trance playlist that create the overall feeling of the film. The content feels second nature. Maybe it was intentional to create more of a distance between the actions of the "players" and the viewer's emotions than a movie already has. Throughout the movie video game-like overlays appear, often without an obvious reason or purpose. A chat/shout box accomponies the 90 minute long live stream. Like the colour changes and other visual effects the overlays become more over time. If it wouldn't have been for all the blinking and first person shooter-like camera movement, the violent content would have been the only thing preventing me from letting the music and colours suck me into a light meditative state. I think it was mostly the violence (repeated murder) and blood that deterred me.
The visual effects shouldn't have surprised me. Harmony Korine used some of them in AGGRO DR1FT, his previous film. But I hadn't seen this before I've watched Baby Invasion. With either of those films I think he has crossed the line of artsy films into a genre I call "I guess it must be art", which I use for films where it really isn't clear to me what they are trying to do, what they are saying, whether there is a story that's being told or what I can take away from watching them. Of course I could try and analyse anything and I would find something to read into this or that and I would find something for me to think about. And that's often all that art is to me or has to be. But I don't feel like I'm part of the target audience of such works and posting even a little bit about what the film is for me has the potential to become embarrassing because I didn't really understand anything and therefore might have missed some connections or messages that are very important to the film.
But here is my take anyway. Is it a video game/shooter critique à la eXistenZ (1999)? I think yes but more. It doesn't tell a story to entertain the viewer. It shows the game/crimes in real time for the viewer to react to but with enough visual and auditory game effects to make any interpretation of how "real" the shown actions are valid. It poses some questions more directly than eXistenZ does: How real are these actions (and customs and habits) to the brain of the player? What of the conventions applied in game break their way through to other parts of the players life? How much of the experiences stays after the game session? I don't know anything about the motivations of Harmonie Korine to create this film. But I do read it as game-skeptic take on shooters like eXistenZ. I compare it with that film because it also seems to ignorantly ask those quartions as if there are no solid answers about them. Yes, it is a controversial debate. But even though it is usually not a fact-based one, there are more than a few scientific papers on the topic now, and have been for 15 years. It is paying tribute to a bogus debate, which doesn't have any value to me. But that's just what I've read into it. When you take the same questions and apply them to a gamers everday life, on a smaller frame, they seem much more valid to me. But that is something I don't have any personal experience with or interest in.