The solipsism of artists and influencers offers infinite variations on self-lacerating lampoon, and Sebastian Silva’s new film Rotting in the Sun comes up with a dandy. Here Silva, the Chilean filmmaker best known in the States for the Michael Cera psychedelic quest movie Crystal Fairy & the Magic Cactus, creates a suicidal, ketamine-crazed Mexico City filmmaker, named for and played by Silva, and a comically, brutally self-absorbed internet personality, named for and played by the comedian (and internet personality) Jordan Firstman. Jordan wants Sebastian to collaborate on a happier variation on Curb Your Enthusiasm,...
- 9/9/2023
- by Chris Vognar
- Rollingstone.com
“Only the optimist commits suicide, optimists who no longer succeed at being optimists.” The Emil Cioran line, introduced in the first scene of Sebastián Silva’s morbid black comedy “Rotting in the Sun,” initially feels like the key to understanding the Chilean filmmaker’s latest endeavor. “The others,” the quote continues, “having no reason to live, why would they have any to die?” More than merely placing suicide at the heart of Silva’s fictionalized take on himself, the quote’s pop intellectualism sets the tone for what soon becomes, in true Silva fashion, an absurdist meditation on death wishes, social media influencers and 21st-century nihilism.
When we first see “Sebastián” reading Cioran, he’s in Mexico City. Adrift with his thoughts and seemingly uninspired, he’s more and more drawn to the idea (if perhaps not the actual reality) of killing himself. From what he gathers, it’s easy...
When we first see “Sebastián” reading Cioran, he’s in Mexico City. Adrift with his thoughts and seemingly uninspired, he’s more and more drawn to the idea (if perhaps not the actual reality) of killing himself. From what he gathers, it’s easy...
- 3/29/2023
- by Manuel Betancourt
- Variety Film + TV
From its hilarious use of social media montages to the oversized white Telfar bag that seems to almost swallow one of its characters whole, Sebastián Silva’s Rotting in the Sun is the kind of film that would be best served by a review comprised entirely of emojis. And I mean that as the highest of compliments. There isn’t a single frame in the film that hasn’t been meticulously manicured in order to achieve what social media tries to do: create a vision of uniqueness while relishing in manufactured mundanity. That Silva achieves to both criticize the overuse of online personas (particularly in the white gay world) while becoming a piece meant to be meme-d and TikTok-ed into oblivion is truly remarkable.
The Chilean director, best known for his psychedelic dramedies like Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus and The Maid, plays a spiritually oversized version of himself,...
The Chilean director, best known for his psychedelic dramedies like Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus and The Maid, plays a spiritually oversized version of himself,...
- 1/31/2023
- by Jose Solís
- The Film Stage
The aptly titled “Rotting in the Sun” is a misanthropic comedy-mystery that pits writer-director-actor Sebastián Silva against Instagram influencer–comedian Jordan Firstman, both of whom are playing themselves or versions of themselves. Silva and Firstman both come across very poorly on screen, but it is difficult to ascertain just how intentional that is.
Silva is first seen in the Plaza Río de Janeiro in Mexico City reading Emil Cioran’s “The Trouble with Being Born,” and he googles his own name and then immediately googles “How to commit suicide in Mexico” before going home to a large studio where he lives and paints. Catalina Saavedra, who played the lead in Silva’s breakout feature “The Maid,” here plays Silva’s real-life maid Vero while Silva’s friend Mateo, who owns the building he is living in, plays himself.
Silva is seen snorting cocaine and listlessly feeling sorry for himself, and he asks Mateo,...
Silva is first seen in the Plaza Río de Janeiro in Mexico City reading Emil Cioran’s “The Trouble with Being Born,” and he googles his own name and then immediately googles “How to commit suicide in Mexico” before going home to a large studio where he lives and paints. Catalina Saavedra, who played the lead in Silva’s breakout feature “The Maid,” here plays Silva’s real-life maid Vero while Silva’s friend Mateo, who owns the building he is living in, plays himself.
Silva is seen snorting cocaine and listlessly feeling sorry for himself, and he asks Mateo,...
- 1/23/2023
- by Dan Callahan
- The Wrap
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