It’s a good question. I would have to rewatch again to articulate with full confidence, but from what I remember: It’s a combination of the one-sided delivery of the story (with a corny, flat positivity from JLB that feels sinister the way forced cheer sometimes does) and the fact that it sounds out of character for Casey. I get that we’re not meant to know exactly what happened between them, but I still felt baffled by how artificial it felt.

why did you feel the final story was fake? it’s a question i’ve been asking after seeing that take so often.

Oh yeah, I remember now. Well, it wasn’t that dude’s fault. I’m actually glad it exists because it feels like an objective or at least very ready answer for “worst movie I ever saw.”

I stole that and I believe I recall the guy was talking about actual food. :[

And it is legendarily boring and inept but I have a soft spot for After Last Season since the lead actor offered to call into my podcast to discuss it after I messaged him on social media to say hi. There’s a fan edit of the film that someone recently published called “The Coherent Cut” that I haven’t watched but trims out about half the runtime. Why some people do this, I’ll never understand.

I did spend a little bit of time thinking about why I didn’t bounce hard off of this. Some of it is certainly that I had just watched Schoenbrun’s Slenderman YouTube “documentary,” and as soon as this started, I realized “oh, this is just the fictional version of that.” That put some shape to the film that maybe isn’t actually there in the text. I also am just sympathetic to most coming-of-age stories as awkward and fumbling, and I guess that bleeding to the form. (I really didn’t see this as a horror film at all)

There’s something else, too, which is that it’s been awhile, like multiple months, since I have reacted really negatively or even really positively to a film I’m watching for the first time. I don’t know if this is some sort of emotional numbing or burnout or degradation of my critical faculties. But I’m ambivalent and noncommittal a lot these days, even when I wish I wasn’t. As a wise man once said, “Good taste is better than bad taste, but bad taste is better than none”

265,000 views.

I do concede this film captures something of our times.