C. T.

It is difficult for me to convey how deeply and perfectly this thing hit me. It is comedy in the same way life itself can feel like a joke. Without warning it jumps from the mundane to the profound, from James Taylor absurdist folk to pleas for prayer that carry an earworm more powerful than i was ever expecting from a comedy special, all executed with deft, focused wit and zero filler. It strikes me as a mirror of the past year, and even if you're not an anxiety-prone performer shut in by COVID right as you were preparing to jump back into the world, i dare you to not feel a thing throughout this movie. Bo Burnham's always had a musicality to his shows that was sort of a crutch previously, but here while he's the only guy putting it all together -- nobody else was involved in this staggeringly coherent work -- does the whole thing hit like a call from the zeitgeist itself. More than disarmed, a reflection with a light you probably hadn't considered -- a concentrated deprogramming from the harsh malice we might be tied up in. Topically it's all over the place, but completely modern with an occasional vaudeville whiff that is indulgent but never worn out, he tackles being alive, hitting 30 years old in isolation, overexposure, the internet, streamers, all sort of displaying how one can reach chapel perilous and emerge in an unexpected way. It covers the concept of really wearing yourself out, loving at a distance, and every single line hits. I wouldn't blame you if you were moved to tears in a couple spots. Nothing but praise for this, made my year. Watch this and let go in all the best ways. Or just laugh.