Film, 2022
Anna Cobb’s vocal mannerisms and empty facial expressions work wonders towards convincingly portraying an isolated teen whose imagination has been nurtured by the internet. The thoroughness of that performance is why the delightful “Love in Winter” dance scene lingered with me as the most shocking moment of the film.
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair enthralls us with the tapestry of the online world in the same visceral way that it does Casey. I was nearly as comforted by the sleep ASMR video as she seemed to be. Watching the panorama of YouTube-clone search results and its autoplaying videos, you can see how you might fall under the spell of a communal myth. The film nails the magical power of blasting bubbly pop music videos late at night.
Much of the tension comes from the fact that we see very little of what’s going on in the minds of its two characters. We don’t see them interact with anyone else in their lives. They only speak in prepared videos and roleplaying calls, which makes it difficult to know for certain how much of this is an act for Casey, whether JLB is unwell and/or manipulative.
So the moment when JLB drops out of character is seismic because it’s a relief to see that someone is concerned about Casey. I melted a bit when he talked about having a tough time in high school. It’s a painful scene because before I could even adjust to JLB’s sincerity, it’s met with hostility. The word, “pedophile”, is searing. Particularly so, I think, because I still wasn’t sure if Casey’s insistence that she knew all along was truthful or defensive, and I hadn’t decided how inappropriate it was for JLB to make contact with Casey online in the way that he did.
The appropriately restrained ending was healing. There’s something holy about presenting Casey’s journey to the edge as finding her way inside the World’s Fair planetarium.
The reveal that this is not a horror film but a story about loneliness and fantasy feels natural in retrospect, but it’s easy for fact and fiction to get tangled, so strong is the desire to be part of something great and unfamiliar. At the beginning, JLB gave us a warning, but I forgot, too.