| "In "Can't Get You Out of My Head," Curtis plays a long montage of talking heads on U.S. cable news repeating the phrase "the walls are closing in," during the final days of the Mueller investigation. He accuses media organizations, including the Times and magazines like this one, of profiting from the frenzy and uncertainty of the past four years, obsessing over Trump's personal corruption and mendacity rather than the alienation and anger that brought about his Presidency in the first place." The question I have of Curtis is whether he starts with a premise and then finds video to support it, or whether he derives his ideas from watching random archive video, or both. It would be fascinating to watch a "making of" documentary that shows how he finds the right archival footage. Ideas like the above about MSM are the easy, obvious ones. It may reinforce what we already feel we know. But his films are also filled with deeper reflections that are less obvious, which he can illustrate with obscure, memorable visuals. If his films did not touch on the obvious ideas they might be too alienating, more like avant-garde art film. If they only addressed obvious ideas the films might be too boring, more like documentaries on Netflix. He somehow finds the right balance. But I think these overarching general theories tying all these disparate clips together that he presents via voiceover... the "leaps" as this article describes them... these are what make his films worth the watch. He has a true talent for that. He stretches but is careful not to go too far. That is what make his films unique, IMO. His "general theories" are similar in effect to conspiracy theories perhaps. They can be very appealing to certain receptive audiences. The big difference is the former seem to be designed to make you think while the latter (along with political correctness) seem to be designed to relieve you of thinking and appeal straight to emotion. His films always seem to suggest we cannot remove ourselves as factors in any outcome. We have to take some amount of responsibility. We cannot view ourselves as pure victims nor others as sole culprits. As for this article, he reveals no overt objection to populism. The title of this film is an homage to the author of "Bullshit Jobs", a self-described anarchist. |
You should read the article then, as it is discussed in there. He has access to the complete BBC archives and just scrolls through material on fast forwards until he stumbles onto interesting threads that he saves and then later finds patterns in.