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Obsession, a new horror film from YouTuber turned director Curry Barker, wasn’t really on my radar until I began hearing talk on various podcasts and Letterboxd accounts of a new crowdpleasing horror film from a fresh, young filmmaker that could have the same juice as Zach Cregger’s Barbarian or the Philippou Brothers’ Talk to Me. That’s certainly enough to pique my interest, though I kept confusing it for Backrooms, another much-hyped horror pic from the finally-coalescing (for better or for worse) YouTube-to-Hollywood pipeline.

Now that I’ve seen Obesession, I can confirm that it is a spooky, little feat of low-budget filmmaking that will play well for a date night or movie party. However, its characters and message aren’t clearly drawn or original enough for me to announce Barker (whose work I have no prior familiarity with) as in the same league as Cregger or the Philippous… yet.

Obsession follows 20-something Bear (Michael Johnston, best known for a recurring role on the last two seasons of MTV’s Teen Wolf series), a music store employee with a big, fat crush on his coworker and longtime friend, Nikki (Inde Navarrette of The CW’s Superman & Lois). One night, Bear buys a “One-Wish Willow” as a gift for Nikki, but after things don’t go the way he imagined, he uses the one wish for himself— that Nikki will love him more than anyone in the world. The wish comes true to Bear’s initial delight, but as you might guess, it slowly becomes a nightmare as Nikki grows more and more possessive— one might even say, obsessed— with him.

There’s a lot I appreciate about Obsession and shows Barker has promise. For one, it looks good! You can see the actors’ faces! Even in the dark! (except when purposely obscured to very creepy effect, of course) Secondly, Johnston and Navarrette give very good performances, holding our attention and scoring both laughs and sympathy even as the runtime threatens to pulls the premise thin. Navarrette especially shines, deftly navigating the turns between caring girlfriend and terrifying stalker, never surrendering to easy misogynistic stereotypes.

I also admire the simplicity of the premise and rules of the film. Wishes come true in this universe. It’s never explained how or why or what exactly is happening to Nikki throughout the duration of Bear’s wish, and I wish more filmmakers had the courage to not over-explain things. The mystery behind Obsession adds to the scare factor.

Those same strengths belie the film’s shortcomings however. As good as Johnston and Navarrette are, we never get a whole sense of who they are before all this goes down. Neither has much of an interior life that gets taken away as a result of the wish. He’s a friendly everyman, and she’s a pretty girl. That’s about it. Many critics are reading the film as a takedown of incel culture and so-called “nice guys” who desire to wrest away women’s autonomy. However, we don’t know enough about Nikki’s wants and needs for Bear’s wish to fully rob her of her personhood. Likewise, Bear doesn’t seem to have much of anything for Nikki to take from him either, except a beloved pet who was already dead to begin with.

With such a simple premise, I just wish there was more to latch onto with these characters, or one more memorable, inventive, big scare to bring the whole thing home. Its 108-minute runtime never quite feels padded the way many so-called “elevated” horror films do, but I felt it could do more to amp up the tension, humor, and emotion behind the story. It does just enough to be a good time at the movies, but not enough to get me telling people, “Holy shit, have you seen Obsession yet?”

This week I officially finished my first semester of library school! Only five more semesters to go until I have my Masters of Library and Information Science and I can become a real librarian!

The path to library school had been a long time coming. You all know I wanted to become a hotshot screenwriter and director. In my first week of film school, I landed a student job at my campus library reshelving books and stayed there until I had my degree. After I graduated, my wife was kind enough to let me focus most of my time on screenwriting, and I picked up a non-student part-time job at the same university library I had been at before. After a year, it was time for me to get a real job, and it really looked like my screenwriting was picking up steam there for a minute, so I figured I’d get a full-time library job juuussssst for a few years until I landed an agent and manager and could move to LA.

But life had other plans. In 2023, the actors and writers strikes (which were totally justified) upended Hollywood. Between that and Covid, Hollywood was already retracting, and studios started going up for sale, meaning more mergers and less jobs. Production largely left LA in favor of tax incentives and cheap labor abroad. Then in 2024 Trump won reelection, guaranteeing higher profits for corporations and shareholders, a greater squeeze on working-class Americans like you and me, and less artistic risks and more jingoistic propaganda from a Hollywood desperate to stay in his good graces. Oh, and did I mention the proliferation of the colon cancer for the world that is generative AI?

Lest it sound like I’m making excuses or shifting blame for my failed screenwriting career, I take full responsibility for the greatest reason I put the brakes on my life as a filmmaker: I became a dad!

I’ll be honest, I didn’t really think becoming a dad would change things that much. It’s laughable now, but I didn’t fully grasp how it would dramatically change my emotional center of gravity. I knew I’d love my daughter, but I didn’t think being gone for extended periods of time on film shoots would be a big deal. Besides, my wife grew up an army brat. Her dad was gone a lot, so she’d be uniquely prepared to hold down the fort while I was gone.

While I have no doubt about my wife’s ability to raise our daughter well by herself, I simply love them too much to waste all my time trying to get micro-budget indies that nobody sees off the ground. And, yeah, even the micro-budget indies that nobody sees take up that much time! Maybe, maybe there’s someone somewhere who’s pulled it off, but I’ve come around to firmly believing that it’s impossible to work full-time, raise a kid, pursue a filmmaking career, and do it all well.

Thus, I finally relented and enrolled in grad school.

I could have pursued a master’s in filmmaking, but it seemed redundant, and how many successful filmmakers do you know with a master’s degree? It seemed the only reason to get one would be to become a film professor, and I don’t really want to perpetuate the scam that is film school. I can’t lie to students’ faces and tell them there’s a viable path to breaking into Hollywood. Sure, maybe they can get some gig work as production assistants or electrical grips, but I didn’t want to do that kind of work (No offense to those who do! They are the unsung blue collar heroes of Hollywood.), so why would I help prepare them to do it?

If I loved filthy lucre, maybe I’d go to law or business school, but I hate arguing and I hate capitalism. I’m too squeamish for med school. Before film school, I seriously thought about politics, but again, I hate arguing with people. I get too worked up and emotional. Maybe there’s something to the concept of “liberal tears.”

All along, the correct option was there staring me dead in the face: library school. It’s not glamorous. It doesn’t make a lot of money. But it does align as neatly with my values and priorities as any profession.

My first semester in library school has only reinforced this. There’s no better place for a progressive leftist who wants to help their community but hates confrontation yet still wants to stick it to the man to work than a library. I mean, think about it. Libraries are the closest thing Americans have to socialism (don’t tell the right-wingers). Taxes go to libraries, and in return, citizens get equal access to their local library’s books, movies, video games, computers, study rooms, event spaces, etc. regardless of income, gender, or race. Libraries are basically the only good thing we get for our taxes instead of riot gear for cops or bombs for Israel.

In a world that’s run amok with anti-wokeness, the American Library Association’s Core Values and Code of Ethics remain staunchly in favor of diversity, equity, inclusion, intellectual freedom, and literacy. I love being able to wake up and go to work or attend classes knowing that my career is predicated on doing good in the world. I’m not working to build shareholder value or make my boss richer. I’m here to provide access to information, free of charge.

Of course, we live in a country and time where it feels like good things just aren’t allowed anymore. Protections are being removed left and right from endangered animals, tribal lands, and our trans loved ones, just to name a few example. If we continue down this path of reactionary fascism, libraries are certainly on the chopping block. At the very least, we already have a great deal of censorship to contend with.

So maybe I traded one fragile career for another. At least I currently work in an academic library; I feel like those are safer than public ones. But you know what? I feel excited and amped up to advocate for libraries and to protect their rights/funding. You want to defund libraries or ban books? I’ll put aside my fear of confrontation and fight you right here, right now! You freedom-hating sack of crap!

I kid, I kid. Unless…

But really though, I am excited for a career in libraries. Who know, maybe I’ll get to be a film librarian someday somewhere. Maybe I’ll go into library administration. Maybe I’ll sell my soul and become a corporate librarian. It’s not likely, but they do exist!

Library school isn’t even hard so far. Maybe it will be down the road, but I found taking two classes online asynchronously to be very manageable. I got perfect grades this semester, which I don’t know that I’ve ever done. I’ve always been more of a 90-98% kind of guy, not 100%.

Do I recommend library school? Well, depends on your intentions and experience. Maybe ask me again when I’m done with my degree.

Whatever the case, I’m happier these days than I have been in some time. It’s mostly from being a dad, but it’s also from having a career path I feel good about.

The Trump Administration released their 2026 counterterrorism strategy Wednesday, May 6th. It’s an expectedly putrid document full of the blatant racism and islamophobia you’d expect from an American so-called “counterterrorist” plan— from either Republican or Democratic presidents, mind you— but what’s especially rancid about this one is that it lumps “Violent Left-Wing Extremists, Including Anarchists and Anti-Fascists” as one of three major types of terror groups.

It’s difficult to even know where to begin with this. But maybe let’s start with the fact that if you are against anti-fascists, then what the hell are you? Oh, yeah. Fucking fascist!!

Secondly, I highly recommend the book To Catch a Fascist by Christopher Mathias. In it, Mathias follows several brave heroes of antifa and their efforts to expose or doxx fascists. You know what Mathias found? There is no formal structure or organization to antifa. That’s kind of the whole point of anarchy. It’s people helping their community without any formal leadership.

But because there’s no real antifa organization, the Trump administration is laying the groundwork to convict and prosecute anyone they deem to be antifa. They could theoretically get me for writing this blog. In which case, kiss my ass, pigs! Of course I’m anti-fascist! Lock me up!

But it should scare you that they want to lock anyone up for speaking their minds. It should also scare you that the counterterrorism plan also says it will identify and neutralize “radically pro-transgender” groups. What the hell does it mean to be radically pro-transgender? To believe people should have the right to identify as the gender of their choosing, receive gender-affirming care, and live in peace as their full self? Then hell yeah, I’m radically pro-transgender too.

These nazi freaks need to be stamped out. It’s because of this kind of shit that I’m not going to vote for anyone going forward who doesn’t prioritize and campaign on holding the Trump administration accountable and protecting human rights, especially trans rights. It’s not enough to pull the Biden move of “Let’s get back to normal.” If normal allowed this kind of hate, I don’t want to go back to normal. We need something better going forward.

Survivor Season 50 comes to an end this week. Almost all my favorite players are gone by now, but that’s pretty typical for a season of Survivor tbh. It’s been a memorable season thanks to a cast of all-returning players, a bunch of twists— most of them having a negative effect on the game lol but still fun—, and stupid celebrity appearances from Zac Brown and Mr. Beast. Real Survivor fans know you take the good with the bad, and I’m excited to see how it all shakes out on Wednesday night.

I’m also into watching movies that make you uncomfortable! No growth happens in the comfort zone, as they say, and it’s good for you soul to engage with movies about sensitive subject matter. I took a couple sick days last week for a cold (that has turned into a sinus infection; I do NOT recommend) and I watched Spike Lee’s Bamboozled and Todd Salondz’s Happiness, films about blackface and pedophilia (among other things), respectively. Both movies made me feel icky about the world, but I love that both films were willing to go there, you know what I mean? It helps us understand the human condition a little better if we can confront these things head on.

I’m gonna be busy moving this week, so I don’t know how much time I’ll have for writing or drawing, but I do want to deliver reviews of The Mandalorian & Grogu and I Love Boosters, so stay tuned!

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