Kinematics / Carnegie Hill Entertainment
Director Dasha Nekrasova creates a queer, campy and bonkers satire about conspiracy theorists.
Directed by: Dasha Nekrasova
Year: 2021
Country: USA
Length: 81 minutes
If you’re looking for something absolutely bonkers, deranged, or something so confronting that it perhaps shouldn’t have been made, and are still interested after reading the synopsis of the directorial debut from actress, podcaster, cult icon, viral sensation and notorious edgelord Dasha Nekrasova, then The Scary of Sixty-First is the film to watch for you this year.
Nekrasova, along with co-host Anna Khachiyan (who makes a brief, but memorable appearance in the film), has been known for sparking quite the controversy with her cultural commentary podcast, Red Scare. The Scary of Sixty-First will undoubtedly add to this reputation and will likely cause an even stronger reaction in audiences upon its theatrical release.
The film starts out as a typical cynical privileged monotone white upper-class New York low budget mumblecore (you know the ones). Addie (Betsey Brown) and Noelle (played by Madeline Quinn, co-writer of the film) have just moved in together. Addie is a simple-minded aspiring actress and has a boyfriend named Greg (Mark Rapaport). There’s not much else to her character than the fact that she’s clinging to the people around her. While she and Noelle are settling in, Addie’s friendship with Noelle seems to be strained by Noelle’s pseudo-intelligent and cynical nature, which causes her to take pleasure in making fun of the but there’s not much motion or aim to be felt in this particular relationship.
That is, until a mysterious woman (played by Nekrasova herself) appears in front of the apartment and goes on a disturbing psychosexual adventure with Noelle, uncovering the truths about the apartment and its previous owner, multi-millionaire and serial predator Jeffrey Epstein. Once Nekrasova enters the screen, with a character full of charisma and the presence similar to that of former It-girl Chloë Sevigny, there’s an immediate change of atmosphere to be felt, turning The Scary of Sixty-First into a highly engrossing horror mystery in which anything can happen.
From the moment the central plot kicks in, the actors are given plenty of room to explore the boundaries of acting, in this seemingly boundary-less film. Betsey Brown uses this like no other would and manages to give both the most disturbing and darkly comedic acting performance in recent years. It’s a daring one. When suddenly her character becomes possessed by the spirit of Epstein’s victims and she regresses to the psyche of a deeply traumatized child, Brown’s performance reaches admirable heights. With a very psychical performance she leaves the audience with images that’ll stay engraved on the retina and with sounds trapped in ear canals for an uncomfortably long time.
And that’s not all. While the film progresses, theories rapidly keep piling up on the already absurd ‘reality’ that is portrayed in the film, establishing links between the unimaginable. This could be described as Kafkaesque, but to our protagonists it’s the most logical explanation behind everything that’s going on. There’s a mystery for them to solve, all they must do is stay ‘awake’.
The beautifully shot 16mm imagery by Hunter Zimny and a 70s-inspired synth score by Eli Keszler that feels like it fits right into an Argento-created giallo add complimentary elements to the fascinatingly mysterious atmosphere presented in this cinematic world.
The Scary of Sixty-First is as unfiltered as can be and takes pride in that, providing its audience with some of the rawest camp that cinema has given us since John Waters did with his 70’s trashterpieces, , sprinkled with some uncensored queerness. However, if you look beneath the layers of transgression, there’s a surprising amount of truth to be found and an uncanny link with our current times. In a time where steadily a growing cult-like group like QAnon fabricates toxic theories around their followers’ skewed perception of reality, dying to find a single answer to all the misery of the world, this killer debut could not be more relevant. With its clever satirization of the forming and spreading of conspiracy theories and the way those affect the vulnerable, the marginalized and the insecure in modern times, Nekrasova holds up a mirror and lets you think.
It may be viewed by some as politically incorrect, transgressive and insensitive, but The Scary of Sixty-First is one of the most reflective possible pieces on the mindset of the increasing number of gullible people in our society who fall for fabricated realities.
The Scary of Sixty-First is playing at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival from 1 till 11 October.
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