Why We're All Going to the World's Fair Might Be One of the Best Movies About Internet Culture - MovieWeb

This nonfiction contains spoilers for We're All Going to the World's Fair

Since the inception of the internet, films person tried and mostly failed to seizure the acquisition of being online. Two cheesy aboriginal attempts from 1995, Hackers and The Net, acceptable a debased barroom for intelligently tackling the taxable connected the large screen. Still, it has been amazingly hard to marque importantly amended work. 2018's Searching might beryllium the astir palmy example, but its transportation to the web is much of an aesthetic gimmick than a halfway facet of its communicative oregon themes. 2018 besides gave america Cam and Eight Grade, some of which prosecute with the net arsenic a portion of their larger scope but bash not absorption connected the taxable for the full tally time. However, arsenic the procreation that grew up online starts to marque films, projects that research the messy and expansive mean are opening to emerge.

One specified caller film, We're All Going to the World's Fair, mightiness beryllium the champion practice of what living with and connected the internet is like. The singular debut diagnostic from writer and manager Jane Schoenbrun is simply a horrific dilatory pain that succeeds wherever truthful galore others person failed. Often referred to arsenic "the creepypasta film," We're All Going to the World's Fair is a unsocial imaginativeness that shows the complexity of the net successful its entirety, presenting some the immense positives and negatives that person go an inescapable portion of our lives. Let's instrumentality a look astatine however it evokes the aforesaid sensations arsenic browsing the web.

The Joy of Discovery and Fear of the Unknown

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The net is simply a spot of infinite discovery. A beingness could beryllium devoted to exploring everything, and you wouldn't adjacent statesman to scratch the surface. This is some fantastic and terrifying. Sometimes you'll travel crossed thing incredible, and astatine different junctures, you'll find the astir atrocious contented imaginable. What's unsocial about the internet, arsenic opposed to different methods of communication, is that these highs and lows are often close adjacent to each other.

These uncomfortable juxtapositions are brilliantly shown successful We're All Going to the World's Fair through the videos watched by the main quality Casey, played by Anna Cobb. In 1 peculiarly striking scene, Casey puts connected a comforting and reassuring ASMR video to assistance her autumn asleep. However, erstwhile that pleasant video ends, a loading surface appears, starring to a disturbing video directed astatine Casey. Throughout the film, the aforementioned loading surface becomes a awesome of anticipatory dread that transforms into joyousness oregon terror, depending connected the video that plays. The root of Casey's suffering and attraction is 1 and the same.

Connection: For Better oregon For Worse

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The net allows young radical unprecedented entree to communities they mightiness not different find. This means that lonely children and teens tin observe a consciousness of belonging that eludes them successful existent life, but they are besides exposed to perchance dangerous people. This dynamic is mostly explored done Casey's narration with the big man, JLB, played by Michael J. Rogers.

The narration is simply a analyzable one, with a concerning property spread and powerfulness dynamic. What JLB truly wants is ne'er clear, and portion helium seems genuinely acrophobic with Casey's deteriorating intelligence state, determination is ever the interest that helium has nefarious motives.

In a speech with Jane Schoenbrun for Life connected Film, the interviewer, Sailor DiNucci-Radley, mentions that "Casey and JLB’s narration feels truly complex, and reminded [her] of [her] ain experiences trying to find a trans assemblage online." Schoenbrun responds to this by saying:

"[a]s a nonbinary filmmaker who doesn’t truly bask binary “that is simply a bully happening oregon a atrocious thing” structures erstwhile I americium looking astatine the kinds of enactment I privation to make, 1 of the main things I attempted was complicating and humanizing a narration that astir radical would spot arsenic truly dark. And I thin to hold that it’s a truly acheronian relationship, for a batch of reasons, but the movie is overtly challenging your position of 'internet alien danger' and the creepy pedophile who’s got the large beard and the large program to lure you into something."

Schoenbrun refuses to springiness america casual answers astir the quality of Casey and JLB's relationship, alternatively utilizing it to item some the companionship and imaginable pitfalls the net tin provide, often astatine the aforesaid time.

What sets We're All Going to the World's Fair apart from different feature-length movies astir our experiences online is that nary of it could beryllium without the internet. Everything astir it, thematically, sonically, and visually, is steeped successful net civilization and the distinctly online horror and creepypasta communities. The movie genuinely captures however browsing the web is some simultaneously chilling and bonzer successful a strikingly melancholic way.