Afterschool (Antonio Campos, 2008)

This debut feature is one of the most brutal yet equally essential narrative films of the decade ('00 - '09). Antonio Campos builds an incredibly aestheticized hyper realistic world representing the lost youth of the naughts.

I want to quickly talk about the highly allegorical death of the Talbert twins. The fall of the twins representing 9/11 and the fall of the towers. Our antihero Robert witnesses the fall and afterwards his already dysfunctional universe looses any sense of stability. Becoming even more perplexed after seeing a video from a different point-of-view (more media coverage, amateur videos) then the distanced one from his own camera. In this one Robert is seen much more clearly, much more helpless. Culminating to the point-of-view of what we could consider to be our directors (our as Campos himself comments the one meant to be left open-ended, to be discussed) in which we can see not only Robert's helplessness but his small assistance in their death. But he is not the only one, Robert's roommate sold them the drugs and everyone else played a role, as is clearly pointed out by Mr. Burke in the film. We are all implicated in 9/11.

Related reads:
Glenn Heath Jr. on the film
Daniel Kasman on the film
J. Hoberman on the film