In “Little Death,” Jack Begert who is mostly known for music videos makes two rather stark decisions with this film one of which is quite disconcerting, the other being rather peculiar. Forcing what appears to be two separate films together also points me to a story underneath that as a film ‘addiction’ seems to be the foremost theme. However, this theme is approached from different perspectives with the former being the more grating and the latter being muted. Truth be told it all begins by surviving what is a rather poor execution.
Primarily a music video director, Begert has worked on Olivia Rodrigo’s latest, Get Him Back! along with Jack Harlow’s First Class, Fergie sampling. I digress, as I watched the film, the voiceover began narrating the story of Martin, a depressed sex hater and heavy TV writer who is played by David Schwimmer, and later on Gaby Hoffman. What I have noticed is that sex is something both hate and the tone of their voice makes me pine to find out more.
Martin is horrified at the thought that he merely pens scripts for the ‘cool’ sitcom on NBC a reference to the fun times the actor spent during his time with friends and is trying to market a screenplay he intends on directing which is based on his experiences.
He clearly disrespects Jena Malone, his fiancée, while simultaneously fantasizing about a more appealing Angela Sarafian. These interludes featuring animations and movie clippings serve quite the purpose.
Hoffman makes an entrance when one of the executives attempts to explain to Martin that a female character needs to be incorporated in the movie, which Martin revolts against due to his strong distaste for the wokeness ideology. Admittedly, it does feel out of character when Kaufman blurts out such cockeyed notions as ”what if a character had to be switched to the opposite sex but he remained entirely the same except for his gender” because even after the implementation of gender swap Martin is still absolutely a bore. At least he offers some fascinating points that might encourage Schwimmer’s odd peculiarities that Hohmann seems to endorse; regrettably, it’s only between “might excite” and “not worth at all in the end.”
The irony of the episode of “Little Death” is slightly more apparent.
They both appear to ridicule the testimony of the Martin character and enhance it with a voice box. The movie tries to pose a question of constant import “Why can’t this man speak for himself? Has this diversification in Hollywood any purpose at all?” (Seth Green plays one of Martin’s writer friends in this film and he attacks the society too.) Schwimmer is the otherwise silent wishful face of the character who wants to possess but in the end, reasonably expects that there would be order around Martin which so happens to be out of order.
And still! Try avoiding hating much or even adoring Martin too much, there is no point in forming these feelings for him for now because the ensuing act is not about him anymore. Transgressing the order of events in which he joined the character sets to this point and what seems to me the most interesting so all at once we get to meet AJ (Dominic Fike) and Karla (Talia Ryder) a young couple in their mid-twenties who got their car and things stolen while they were trying to traffick drugs but they did also get an adorable chihuahua.
Begert leaves behind what appeared to be an untidy style, which maintains a disordered cut to concentrate on their excursion around Los Angeles that in the end turns into a gradual tale about drug addiction, rather than a tiresome and revolting story.
Although AJ and Karla are drug dependents, Fike and Ryder however did not engage in the regular rites of initiation that accompany such ideas.
To be precise, there is drug usage but it is not too apparent, it is more discreet. Karla has her weakness and it appears that Ryder is knowledgeable in that regard and more importantly benefits from it, however, it is the extent to which she is addicted to such substances, which is quite sobering. In contrast, Fike, who first came into the limelight for the ‘Euphoria’ series, is also remarkably frank about drug use and is rather sedate at the same time, permitting for an astonishingly stirring last shot.
That swerve can best be explained as the localization of the traditional boredom that characterizes the last part of the film. Like, for example, tacos (and a cameo of them, those of AJ who wants to have a taco truck), pig racing at a party with Karla and then with a dealer, a tacky version of Alfred Molina’s episode in ‘Boogie Nights’. With Karl Glusman in an incel role, as if his role were to stop AJ and Karla’s pothead pal Sante Bentivoglio from making a move towards a snow globe.
The intrigue in the movie however is clear as to why Darren Aronofsky, an executive Producer alongside his Protozoa company, would have found it interesting.
The film can be likened to a spiritual sequel to Aronofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream” where it delves into the realm of poppers and all kinds of tablets. But it does not possess the same frustrating Aronofsky energy.
Considering the disjointed nature of the film and the way it is edited from a pacing perspective, it is fairly easy to deduce what Begert was going for.
Martin portrays the character of an addict who tries to maintain a respectable image and who could possibly be more vile than AJ and Karla, however, the forced duality in this structure is just too jarring. A longer film is described and connected in a way that is two-dimensional, the stampede of events never allows for meaningful connections to develop.
Beget shows the best performance in simplest films, in one of which we accompany two friends on a drug ‘trip’ across Los Angeles. While this is happening AJ and Karla are trying to get to the ‘kupeshna’ or ‘Canter’s’ hoping to get better, it is not farfetched that in the end, their route would lead to a somewhat of a rehab center. Martin? I mean do we really need him?
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