I Blame Society

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.

I Blame Society: Filmmaker Gillian Wallace Horvat plays a crazed version of herself who gets fed up with scripts being rejected and studio double-dealing. She decides to use her skills to kil off all the hypocritical and annoying people she knows. Things get a bit Meta as she's making a faux-documentary about how good she would be as a serial killer. Some very dark scenes, you know this is black comedy and satire but it still cuts to the bone. Quite literally as she makes her murders look like suicide. She even dresses rooms as murder scenes as she breaks into homes. The chuckle may well die in your throats at times but this is well worth watching, Directed/Written by Gillian Wallace Horvat. 8/10.

Antisocial killers that murder on camera surly isn't a new trope (Hi Michael powell' Peeping Tom)

Here we get a young perky millennial named Gillian (a very game Gillian Wallace Horvath who also co-wrote the script) doing the dastardly deed and the result is, quite frankly, a nifty little feature, as far as I'm concerned.

I just wanted to do a quick writeup to hopefully convince any doubters, due to it low accumulated rating (4.2) that this is actually a pretty enjoyable and stinging comedy (in a dark and depraved sort of way)

Hope you like it.

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.

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.