In Fabric

Why do some people get absurdly excited over a sale? Are commercials a kind of hypnosis, entrancing the audience to buy killer clothing? Do you find your work-life filled with complex business terminology that makes your eyes glaze over? Does your boss get a little too excited when new business jargon is introduced? What if making money at a monotonous job and spending it at a never-ending sale is much more insidious than it seems?

The excesses of our consumer culture can sometimes seem incomprehensible and in the horror/comedy In Fabric it’s portrayed as a sinister plot. In Peter Strickland’s new movie, a department store is the epicenter of a fetishistic fascination with the capitalistic cycle. This film is a stunningly excessive tribute to consumerism and boredom.

It’s a film that defies easy explanation. To describe the plot beyond “a woman buys a killer dress” would require an explanation of the whole thing. And that would spoil all the fun. It’s a movie that is purposefully and frustratingly opaque, but also wonderfully expressive. Little attention is paid to actually explain things, instead, the audience is meant to experience everything viscerally. You will be seduced into the strange world of aesthetically marvelous depravity.

In its excessiveness, the film never becomes a true horror, though it adheres to many of the genre’s traditions. It’s a comedy of excess, bringing every detail up to level 11. Surprisingly, the movie manages to remain grounded with everything going on. Strickland takes every bit of insanity and treats it with the utmost seriousness, the result is a surprisingly great comedy. It’s hard to juggle between horror and comedy, and In Fabric doesn’t always manage to maintain balance perfectly. It’s a load of nonsense and sometimes Strickland goes too far. He holds a moment too long, loses the narrative thread for a scene or repeats things without appropriately expanding on them. But when it works, it’s terrific. The film is vulgar, bizarre and wholly unapologetic; it’s not for everyone. But for all those reasons it’s also an absolute treat.

In Fabric uses out of the box filmmaking techniques that are increasingly underutilized in contemporary cinema. The editing is particularly playful, manipulating and playing with time like it’s silly putty. Enough cannot be said about the superb sound design that sells Strickland’s strange world. The more you sit back and forget trying to figure the movie out, and the more you let the bizarreness wash over you, the more hilarious it is. The showmanship is enough to engage throughout even if some parts are uneven. Ultimately, the film isn’t trying to say anything profound or unique about consumerism but it does express its ideas in a wholly original way and it’s worthwhile for that alone.