A budding filmmaker pursues her desire to the extreme to make a truthful film in I Blame Society. Gillian Wallace Horvat plays a fictional version of herself, whilst also fulfilling writing and directing duties. In the film, Gillian is focused on making a feature film. After sensing her peers are losing faith in her ability to succeed, she sets out to prove them wrong by creating the ultimate documentary film: one that shows how to achieve the perfect murder. Her proposed victim is the girlfriend of her best friend, but she soon finds herself fixated on her mission and develops a taste for violence. Eventually her passion bubbles over and Gillian embraces the method approach in a bid to achieve her dreams.
I Blame Society is a hard film to fully get to grips with. Right from the beginning, the viewer is on the back foot, the story starting in what feels like the middle of a scene. Here we meet Gillian as she interviews best friend Chase. During the discussion Gillian shares her reasons for making Chase’s girlfriend the subject (victim) of her film. This catch-up doesn’t quite have the desired effect however, and is screaming out for a couple of earlier scenes where we observe the two women together. There’s a portion of the film that plays on Gillian’s reasonings for picking her ‘prey’, and so it would be great to see their dynamic early on, to see whether the malice towards Gillian is real or irrational. We do get some scenes featuring the pair later on, but by then we’re too far down the road for them to have any impact.
After the opening sequence the story jumps forward three years for no apparent reason, which causes further disconnect and confusion for the audience. Despite the previous scene’s conversation, Gillian still hasn’t started work on the documentary, but after getting a knockback on another project, she revisits the idea. Once again, it feels as if there’s a better way to tell this narrative; the three year time jump adds very little. I Blame Society then flits from scene-to-scene with little in the way of story or character progression, or sense of time.
Filmed on what was clearly a low-budget, I Blame Society looks like it cost, barely rising above the production values of a home video. A courageous amount of time has been put into creating a variety of shots, so it doesn’t play out in a typical found-footage style, but the edges are still rough. The character of Gillain herself is also weak. It isn’t that Gillian is an unlikeable character, she’s just a bit of a dull, not what you want from your lead. Having writer and director Gillain playing a writer and director called Gillain, makes everything very meta, blurring the lines a little too much. Her performance is awkward and stilted, and given the self-knowing nature, it’s difficult to figure out whether it’s an intentional part of the character or a sign of Horvat’s inexperience as an actor.
At its core, I Blame Society Horvat is trying to tackle weighty socio-political topics. The whole film thrusts a spotlight on the gender politics of the movie business whilst also highlighting the true slog it is to be creative within the strict confines of the movie industry. They’re issues that will strike a chord with many, but the manner of delivery dilutes some of the impact that Horvat is clearly pushing for.
Playing into the meta nature of the film, a lot of the criticisms of I Blame Society are actually highlighted within the movie, coming from Gillian’s potential producers. The inclusion of this scene points to the aforementioned irritations with plot and character being entirely intentional, but that doesn’t save the viewer from having to sit through some really dull moments. This meta-documentary doesn’t muster up the right amount of malice and spite needed to make it a worthy viewing prospect.
Blue Finch Film Releasing presents I Blame Society on Digital Download 19 April.
I Blame Society
Summary
I Blame Society is trying to say a lot, but sadly achieves little.
