1 – A business school manual grew legs, and eyes, and became Lou Bloom. This means that somewhere in the world there is someone who saw this movie and thought that Lou Bloom was an American hero. A manic capitalist.
2 – The moment when Lou Bloom first reaches into the accident-event to change things, improving the shot, the frame of the film itself gives a small shake, bringing the second, invisible camera operator into the world of the film. It nudges you into realising that your titillation is the aim of this film, just as Lou Bloom’s footage aims to titillate the viewers of the Los Angeles early morning news. You are the ones making all this possible.
3 – Lou Bloom is part of the fourth, neoliberal, emergency service – those who capture the image and pin it onto the wall with its red thread. Who arrive after the accident and try to sell it.
4 – The shot of Riz Ahmed’s (Rick’s) profile, lying on the road looking up, and then the fade to the cityscape of Los Angeles. He lies dead over the city, making the symbol of the society that sacrificed him; a good, and desperate man. This business mindset is to blame, and he should haunt them above the horizon as the clouds of wildfire smoke do.
5 – We end with the big expensive watch, the eternal desire of the business guy. The watch, a sign of having made it. I have the big watch, the metal wrist. Tick tick tick. Look at my watch, it doesn’t care about you. And with the induction speech for the internship, the boss=psychopath identification is complete.
6 – Does the film want us to interpret it materialistically? It shows us the broadcast towers again and again, as if it wants to say – this is what is wrought by these metal towers. An almost Lynchian feeling. But that is obviously too simple. As the vans of the new business drive off, into the sustained American nightmare.
Absolute|Unrest 