InRO Weekly — Volume 1, Issue 11

sxsw 2023
two-way video chat, capturing their disgusted reactions to each
new discovery in real time, all while trying to comprehend why
someone would do this. After wading into the cesspool of
deepfake porn sites and message boards, they come to the
conclusion that the offending party is a former male roommate
of Taylor’s (this individual, like the women in the film, is granted
anonymity and given an avatar which conceals his actual face)
who they had a falling out with years earlier. In an all too familiar
turn of events, this individual allegedly lashed out over perceived
emotional rejection, acting on his grievances — imagined or
otherwise — by attempting to humiliate an innocent woman. It’s a
narrative often associated with revenge porn, but as the film
makes maddeningly clear, the laws about deepfakes are so
nascent that there may not actually be criminal recourse for
victims — the film presents a phone call between Taylor and her
local police dispatch, with the officer taking the call at an utter
loss as to whether a crime has been committed or how even to
proceed investigating it.
“It’s not necessarily a question
of “ethics”… but it does raise
the question of what, if
anything, we’re seeing on
screen is actually “real.”
We’re ultimately left in a disquieting and unsatisfying place
where comeuppances are in short supply and happy endings are
measured. The sense of violation for the young women is
palpable and, as the film briefly argues, these attacks against
women are primarily a means of cowing them into compliance or
forcing them off the Internet altogether. But beyond the
justifiable sense of being skeeved-out, it’s uncertain what’s
actually to be done to stop this sort of thing (it’s telling that no
one in the film even mentions the phrase “First Amendment”). In
addition, the filmmakers may have only further muddied the
waters on the pliability of ostensibly documentary footage,
opening the door for far more nefarious applications. You may
want to take a shower after watching this — for more than one
reason. — ANDREW DIGNAN
ABERRANCE
Baatar Batsukh
Director/cinematographer/co-writer Baatar Batsukh ends his
new film Aberrance with a dedication to Darren Aronofsky,
acknowledging the former indie darling/now-Academy
Award-winning director’s influence on Batsukh's own low-budget
psychological horror-thriller. A more proper shoutout might be to
Park Chan-wook, from whom Batsukh has borrowed a certain
hyperactive visual hyperbole — slick widescreen images that
suffer from a surfeit of “one-perfect-shot” syndrome. It’s not a
great film, in other words, although not without some small
merits. But Batsukh’s attempt to chart the dissolution of a
marriage between a mentally unstable woman and her oafish,
abusive husband mistakes a plethora of ostentatious style for
substance, employing an insistent score and ludicrous camera
calisthenics to beat the audience into submission. It’s barely a
narrative, functioning more like a demo reel or a calling card.
The film begins with Erkhmee (Erkhembayar Ganbat) and Selenge
(Selenge Chadraabal) arriving at a well-appointed house in the
mountains of Mongolia. Selenge seems quiet and aloof, while
Erkhmee attempts to cheer her up with talk about the clear
mountain air and how the peace and quiet will do them some
good. Before they’re done unpacking, a friendly neighbor, Yalalt
(Yalalt Namsrai), has already introduced himself, leading to some
glowering from Erkhmee. Then Selenge finds a dead cat out by
the garbage and things suddenly devolve; in rapid succession, it’s
revealed that Selenge is suffering from some kind of disorder
and that Erkhmee is a particularly brutal caretaker, admonishing
her for refusing her medication and force-feeding her soup when
she declines to eat. Selenge has vivid nightmares, and despite
her entreaties, Erkhmee refuses to let her leave the house. Yalalt
witnesses some of these interactions, and begins snooping
around to gather more evidence.
Eventually, his anonymous report to the police backfires when
Erkhmee instantly susses out that Yalalt made the call, and a
later effort to win him over goes awry when Yalalt gets drunk and
accuses Erkhmee of domestic abuse in front of Selenge and two
of her friends. It’s a volatile mixture of rage and resentment,
which Batsukh diffuses in the most asinine way possible; rather
than building tension and following any of these plot threads, he
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