No. 75 - The Curse
Nathan Fielder’s new show continues his deconstruction of how we perceive reality, but this time with Emma Stone!
Seeing Reality on your Screen
In Nathan Fielder’s previous two projects, Nathan for You and The Rehearsal, Fielder played a fictional version of himself that leveraged his show to get what his fictional self desired out of willing real world participants. While The Curse does not feature the stranger than fiction real world elements that those two series showcased, it still has a lot to say about how exploitative reality tv can be as it follows a couple during their time filming a HGTV reality tv show that becomes marred by a curse.
All screens can be utilized to tell a fictitious version of real events. Security footage, news programs, and social media are shown throughout The Curse to be tools that can forge a new version of reality. For Asher (Nathan Fielder) and Whitney (Emma Stone), that means making a world where they are happily married do-gooders that are definitely not involved in any criminal activity. Their will over reality is mostly granted by their mutual wealth and the reality tv series they’re filming, “Fliplanthropy,” a show where they altruistically flip houses and try to improve the community of Española, New Mexico.
The Curse depicts Asher and Whitney as wealthy and extremely white people utilizing their privilege, capital, and status to shape the world around them. Their thin skin, pale from their lives spent in their luxurious homes, can not bear any sort of acknowledgment that they are anything but benevolent. They bribe, coerce, and aggressively patronize the mostly indigenous population of Española whenever it is suggested that they have any ill intent or negative attributes. When the world can’t be bent by the sheer force of money, they utilize what they do wield power over, their reality tv show.
Their show, “Fliplanthropy”, is, on the surface, a feel good home renovation show where Asher and Whitney improve homes and businesses to have a neutral impact on the environment. They change lives, give to the needy, and make Española a better place all while smiling their little benevolent hearts out. It’s the kind of show that would be heartwarming junk food that one might binge on a lonely night. What The Curse reveals about shows like these is just how manipulative and false they are. Utilizing underhanded methods, they can create new identities for themselves and Española that not only protect their precious vanity, but embolden it. This also services to clear the negative image of these two white people buying up indigenous land from people of color. Asher, Whitney, and their producer Dougie (Benny Safdie) hire actors to play real people, fake emotional scenarios, force line readings from people, and straight up lie about the homes, the jobs, and even the money they give to those in need. More often than not, Whitney uses the cloak of performative white allyship with the indigenous community to try to improve her social standing and reputation at the exhausting expense of Cara (Nizhonniya Austin), a native artist. Asher on the other hand deals with crippling self esteem issues that manifests in a performative version of both masculinity and generosity, that, while hokey, lacks any real outward empathy as he tries to protect this cosplay of a good person. One act of this false generosity ends up resulting in one of the residents of Española, a little girl (Hikmah Warsame), bestowing a very real curse on Asher.
What’s most upsetting about this curse to Asher is that it seemingly has no way out. No amount of money or do-goodness will get him out of it. Somehow this black child wields an enormous amount of power of reality that he can not fight back against. This power, as explained by her father, is rooted in believing in something enough - a stark contrast to Whitney and Asher’s shallow pop-consumerist beliefs. Coupled with Whitney’s relentless desire to curate a perfect, artsy, and “Good” (read “socially progressive”) identity for herself despite her horrifyingly vacant interior, the doomed couple’s lives to spiral out of control. Often, it creates some terribly awkward scenarios, perhaps the cringiest and most satirically cutting of Fielder’s career.
One of my favorite elements of the show is the subversive cinematography. Nearly all camera angles are from behind corners and through windows, like a reality show would shoot, but instead of the quick cuts and dramatic music, The Curse allows these shots to play out long and naturalistically. The only sort of music that enters is strange synth and ambient music that feels extraterrestrial compared to the world of HGTV. Without the familiar musical stings and editing, this kind of filmmaking reveals the creepy and voyeuristic nature of reality tv.
If anything, that seems to be one of the largest points of the show, this evil at the heart of reality television. Not only is it exploitative, but it falsely presents a version of reality that doesn’t exist and insists it’s real. It tries to fool you with its hollow use of progressive language and heartwarming moments, but that’s just to get you to watch. The houses, the community service, and the feelings in “Fliplanthropy” are all a lie told through convenient editing and money to elevate the reputations of its stars and convey a false sense of humanity. With lawsuit after lawsuit against these popular reality shows coming to light, can you honestly believe anyone is holding a real reality show to any standard to tell the truth? Then again, do you even want the truth at this point? Would you watch a show where you see the true hollow and vile nature of these self-centered HGTV hucksters?
I mean, I just did and, honestly, I think they should all be ejected from this Earth.
The Curse is available for streaming on Showtime
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Stray Observations
Anyone who watched all of The Curse likely has their own questions, feelings, and theories about its terrifying surrealist ending. It is so shocking and strange and, honestly, almost feels like a standalone short film for the second half. Felt I couldn’t include I in my write up for the show proper because of how much weirder it is. The very last lines of the show, I feel, emphasizes the point that cameras recontextualize what reality is even if the true reality is something horrifyingly bizarre. “Do you know what they’re filming? How’d they do that?” Would love to hear thoughts from anyone who watched the show though!
Guy Maddin is releasing a new film! One of Canada’s boldest filmmakers, Maddin is known for his surrealist and historically inspired filmmaking techniques. Frequently, his films employ the use of vintage cameras and silent-era filming techniques in order to create otherworldly stories. His work includes the incredible pseudo-documentary My Winnipeg (2007) and the fabulist Brand Upon the Brain (2006). His new film, Rumours, stars Alicia Vikander and Cate Blanchett and will be codirected by Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson. According to a press release, the plot is follows: “The seven leaders of the world's wealthiest liberal democracies at the annual G7 summit become lost in the woods and face increasing peril while attempting to draft a provisional statement regarding a global crisis." Currently it has no release date, but it is expected to release this year.
Thanks for reading! Relatively short issue this week, but its only the beginning of the year, yeesh, give me a break. Don’t forget to subscribe and share!