Review: Sick of Myself – A pill for narcissism
Directed by Kristoffer Borgli
Starring Kristine Kujath Thorp, Eirik Sæther,
8/10
The lengths someone would go to to finally receive the adoration, sympathy, and attention of their peers is explored in this wonderfully sick new Norwegian film. It takes the attention-seeking celebrity-worship aspects of a film like Ingrid Goes West and puts a properly demented spin on it, depicting the incredible (and incredibly disturbing) way this woman wishes to not only become an important public figure, but finally become an important part of her boyfriend’s life.
Signe (Kristine Kujath Thorp) initially appears to have an exciting, yet slightly criminal way of having fun with her boyfriend Thomas (Eirik Sæther). Yet she feels ignored by him, or at least objectified. Signe feels hopeless and her intense craving is hardly being satiated. But she has a plan: simply buy up a recently recalled drug that causes skin disease, start taking it, and get the disease so she can feel affection and sympathy from her loved ones. Of course!
The movie may seem weird, as will the main character’s bizarre actions, but it actually makes sense when looked through a thematic perspective, showing the unusual values she has when it comes to how she wants to be viewed by people. The film spends enough time conveying her dissatisfaction with Thomas, as well as what lengths they go to get their kicks, so it comes across as reasonable (at least in this film’s warped universe) that she would start abusing the medication.
We get direct glimpses into her fantasies, showing a world that totally serves to her desires. It’s amusing to watch, but still comes across as an honest view of how someone living in an age of competing for attention has developed such a warped, self-obsessed mindset.
The film keeps up your interest with the ridiculous and disturbing turns it takes throughout, never getting tired of itself. Maybe the film doesn’t quite land its ending with an abrupt anticlimax, though it still works as a quality scene about self-acceptance, resembling the final scene from the somewhat similar film [Safe].
Forget about the new Exorcist movie, this is the real horror movie to see, though it replaces the scares with laughs (still there’s a handful of gruesome body horror moments).
DAVID MORGAN-BROWN