Encore (2018)
The audience is consensually prompted to gaze into the small, condensed universe of someone experiencing a fascinatingly destructive egomania. Here, they recognize behavior once thought to be beyond eccentric, yet today somehow normalized - perhaps sprouting from a modern culture of self-centered ideology? We witness in this character the downfall of self-idolatry; the frequent cause and occasional side effect of pathological narcissism; self-hatred. The struggle between loving oneself more than anything, while simultaneously desiring perfection, threatens to upend the film's eerie dreamworld. However, a brief brush with self-awareness only serves to solidify the character's self-obsession. An existential crisis half-realized - drowned in the shallow waters of Narcissus' well.
