Shifty

I don't think Adam Curtis actually wants you to watch this one, and that makes me sad. I'm sorry you're questioning your effects, Adam, but I want to see you make good films again. I remember watching Hypernormalization through a flimsy laptop screen on the carpet of my bedroom floor in my apartment and Can't Get You Out Of My Head hunched over my laptop at the kitchen table and the feeling of my brain turn the ideas over in my head. Those were good hours spent.

But this one... I feel like this is Curtis reciting Mark Fisher's Hauntology, staring at late capitalism with hatred while knowing that eating nostalgia is empty calories. The ending feels like Curtis gave up on tying together the narrative and instead threw up his hands in a rush of anger.

As I was telling my friends about this film, we argued about whether you can actually know history. I believe the world and the past is knowable (vain as it may be to try), and they were telling me that history is always changing to reflect our present understanding. I want Curtis to bring me some clarity in the present, but am I wrong to believe it's possible? Am I misremembering what it felt like?