Bo Burnham. Writer, musician, comedian, actor. If you're familiar with his work right from vine or his work now trending on tiktok. His new special on Netflix has taken the internet and the world by storm.
His special "inside" takes place inside 1 house during the COVID-19 lockdown. He uses music to entertain through different topics such as 'white woman's instagram’ and Jeff Bezos. His song 'How the world works' is telling through himself singing about bees drinking pollen, then his friend socko, a sock puppet sings about how neo liberal facists are destroying the left. The sock puppet continues to sing "why do you rich fucking white people insist on seeing every socio-political conflict through the myopic lens of your own self- actualization?" he then sings "this isn't about you. Either get with it or get out of the fucking way”. There are tones of politics and social issues. Aside from that the film takes us through from start to finish of the 'inside' album. Some songs express how lockdown has affected him as a comedian and his mental health. Whereas some songs are just random topics.
The film starts off with the song 'content' where Bo does indeed give us content. At points of the film he express' how he is struggling to get the film done because he doesn’t know what he will do with himself after. At those points of the film I felt a sense of relation.
Bo uses visuals with lights and a projector to his advantage while being stuck inside 1 room. With props such as a disco ball, LED and strobe lights. The movie itself is like it's own art installation. Each shot is perfectly set up with a limited amount equipment and human interaction. Which gives the film as a whole a realistic sense of relation. We all understand in one way or another how lockdown can affect mental health with limited human contact. As far as visuals go, watch if you watch unpaid intern with the noir aesthetic and the 30's jazz music then watch welcome to the internet with the blue LED lights and strobe lights as well as the quick low angle transitions, they are different but the same.
Ultimately, 'inside' depicts how lockdown has affected him as a comedian
and his mental health. We can feel a sense of relation as at some point during lockdown we all have felt lost. Going back to different areas of the film, Bo uses satire comedy to make topics such as 'unpaid intern ' seem lighthearted and fun due to the genre of music however we know as an audience that no workplace should abuse their staffs labour as it dehumanises them with a lack of wages.
Overall, this artpeice captures the reality of entertainers and artists during lockdown and how they're struggling to get by. I enjoyed this film throughly and even if you are not familiar with Bo Burnham himself I would highly recommend 'inside' as an eye opener.
The Pink Soap Review Rating: 9/10