Barney Cam

The original Barney Cam is a slow boil - In what is an obvious nod to Ingmar Bergman's "Wild Strawberries" and Gus Van Sant's "Gerry" - Barney wanders aimlessly in the West Wing of the White House, wandering, Barney confronts the distractions of the season in forms of ball ornaments and begins pushing them around with his noise - an obvious metaphor for consumerism. Barney's ordinarily nihilistic character attempts to embrace the pop-consumer culture of ordinary life by diving nose first into it, but finds that this does not satisfy him emotionally. Against a melange of Christmas music, Barney searches for true enlightenment and realizes that he is a prisoner in his own home. His life of connivence, which he has believed to be a liberation from his feral instincts has only closed him in. Barney runs around in a rage of emotions - will he allow himself to be pacified and coddled or will he let his true ranger of emotions flow in an explosion of the soul.

He weighs the decision carefully - knowing that the embracing of rampant individualism and anarchistic freedom may be misconstrued as an endorsement for the Libertarian party. The camera follows Barney as he begins his search for freedom, using a fish eye lens in one instance which brings us to recall Spike Jonze's work on Beastie Boy music videos. What is Barney, as an auteur saying here? I find that it is only a matter of personal interpretation. Barney soon finds a crack in the White House security (a disturbing commentary of Post-9/11 America if I have ever seen one!) and flees the residence, escaping to the White House lawn. Barney uses a powerful mise-en-scene here - he runs free, fast and to where not even the camera can follow him. His character is freed of the bounds of the traditional structure of the story that encapsulates him. However this is not the end of tale.

Traditionally in comparable hollywood thrillers the protagonist escapes and leads a happy life. Not so with Barney. Barney steals a page from the Italian Neorealism tome and mirrors the story of Icarus - Barney is faced with too many bones, too many volleyballs to play with, too much freedom. In the end this freedom smashes his sense of self-control; only in true freedom is he at his most powerless. He's drawn back to the White House, the doors held open by a nameless figure (Referencing Bergman again, this time "The Seventh Seal", the door-holding figure has a strikingly similar pose to that of Death). Barney falls into the trap of comfort and is absorbed into mainstream society. The camera fades to black, implying that Barney was not able to become free again, and that his will was suppressed.

The tale is a depressing allegory, one can only wonder how far Barney wants us to take it. Barney takes a nihilistic approach to the world and juxtaposes it with festive music, representing the outer and inner feelings his character has, allowing us to have a more meaningful connection to his story. The directing debut of Barney is strong, we can only hope that his strong visual style carries over to his future projects.

5/5
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