If you haven’t seen Bo Burnham: Inside, remedy that
I don’t generally do media reviews, but I caught Bo Burnham: Inside last night on Netflix and have been thinking about it since. It was rocking a 9/10 on IMDB last night, and I’d say that was deserved.
TL;DR – this is what interests me today.
I’m reminded of Pink Floyd’s movie The Wall in how this progresses. It begins as a comedy, and progresses into a year-long special / descent into … something tangentially different. It starts as a comedy show and ends in places entirely unexpected, along the way there’s an amazing set of visuals that were produced in a tiny room using a projector and whatever was at hand combined with a year to get it done.
The comedy show portion was amusing. I’ll have the song White Woman’s Instagram stuck in my head until the end of time probably. There’s no real solid differentiation between the comedy and when it changes and that’s what’s so fascinating.
Songs that go from jokes to poignant and heartfelt and right back to jokes, to facing the terror of being stuck with yourself for over a year. Throw in a couple of extremely biting commentaries on self improvement and actuation in social movements when it’s not about you.
It’s a deeply strange and unsettling space that reminded me a bit of the final episode presentation style of The Prisoner meets the musical number “I’m Going Home” from the Rocky Horror Picture show near the end. I’d guessed what was happening at the ending which in itself was a mildly disturbing.
At the end my wife and I both wondered how he’s doing and decided to check up on him as well as we could being complete internet strangers/stalkers.
Should be warned, discussions of suicide and wanting to be dead abound. This is a mental health rollercoaster, maybe a masterpiece. Perhaps I was just in the mood to be wowed by it. Perhaps I’m showing my pedestrian tastes. Who knows. If you’re in the mood for a musical comedy rock art drama educational inspirational sad happy acid-trip of a time, put this on your radar.
Also Bo, you ok?
