Lit­tle White Lies x Film Feels Presents… Obsession

This sum­mer, Film Feels are explor­ing the endur­ing appeal of Obses­sion on screen at cin­e­mas, fes­ti­vals, events and pop ups around the UK. Search for screen­ings hap­pen­ing near you here, and check out our guide to this long-stand­ing sub­ject below.

Name: Annie Lau­rie Star
Played by: Peg­gy Cum­mins
Film: Gun Crazy (1950)

The phal­lic poten­tial of the trusty six-shoot­er is clear­ly vis­i­ble in Joseph H Lewis’ deliri­ous crime spree pic­ture in which a loved-up pair of trig­ger-hap­py repro­bates take on the world with just the ammo on their pock­et. Peg­gy Cum­mins’ Annie is crack shot with a pis­tol, and falls hard for John Dall’s Bart when she sees the slick man­ner in which he han­dles a gat. Unlucky for him, it tran­spire she is one bad egg, fix­at­ed with trans­gres­sion to the point of anni­hi­la­tion. In terms of obses­sion, this one flags up an unholy tri­fec­ta of guns, vio­lence and crim­i­nal endeav­our which sends this wild pair down a road from which there is no return.

Name: Lee Jong-su
Played by: Yoo Ah-in
Film: Burn­ing (2018)

The neg­a­tive effects of roman­tic obses­sion are exac­er­bat­ed when you have no one to talk to about your prob­lems. Book­ish, shy Lee Jong-su tends his farm as his father lan­guish­es in prison. A meet-cute with old school­mate Shin Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo) swift­ly evolves into a sex­u­al liai­son and then a bur­geon­ing love affair, until she heads of trav­el­ling and returns with the con­sid­er­ably more afflu­ent, charis­mat­ic and relaxed Ben (Steven Yeun) on her arm. Lee Chang-dong’s mas­ter­ful Burn­ing con­flates obses­sion with para­noia – the way we tend to pick, pick, pick at the scab even though we know it’s going to bleed.

Name: Ingrid Thor­burn
Played by: Aubrey Plaza
Film: Ingrid Goes West (2017)

If obses­sion is a big ol’ bon­fire, then social media is like a can of kero­sine. Aubrey Plaza, the com­ic actress who boasts a nice line in dement­ed loons, plays a young woman named Ingrid Thor­burn who wants noth­ing more than to bridge the dig­i­tal chasm between her­self and top media influ­encer Tay­lor Sloane (Lizzie Olsen). With a dis­charge note from the local asy­lum and a mas­sive inher­i­tance cheque from her deceased moth­er, Ingrid high­tails it to Cal­i­for­nia and con­nives and cheats her way into Taylor’s charmed life, alien­at­ing friends and fam­i­ly in the process. The mes­sage of the film invites us to not con­fuse dig­i­tal avatars with real peo­ple, as slav­ish­ly chas­ing after the for­mer can lead to some very dark spots.

Name: Robert Gray­smith
Played by: Jake Gyl­len­haal
Film: Zodi­ac (2007)

This is a case of what you might call occu­pa­tion­al obses­sion, where the art focus­ing your mind onto a sin­gle sub­ject can be both intel­lec­tu­al­ly ful­fill­ing and pos­si­bly even lucra­tive. In the late 1970s, a series of unsolved mur­ders became tied togeth­er by the cryp­tic notes from the pen of a per­son iden­ti­fy­ing him­self as Zodi­ac. Jake Gyl­len­haal plays Robert Gray­smith, a car­toon­ist-cum-code­break­er whose work for the San Fran­cis­co Chron­i­cle caus­es him to ded­i­cate his life to reveal­ing the iden­ti­ty of this sav­age prowler. There’s an exis­ten­tial edge to the David Fincher’s film, where Graysmith’s search for truth can be seen as a bid to prove that God exists. It’s about how obses­sion is some­times the only way to unlock life’s most for­mi­da­ble challenges.

Intrigued by movie obses­sion? Explore more at film​feels​.co​.uk