Synopsis: revolves around a couple who can’t seem to engage in sexual activity with one another, not only due to their circumstances, but also because their relationship entered a tailspin during the initial period of the pandemic.
Eugene Kotlyarenko, the writer and director of the project, completely enthralled the Fantasia audience in 2020 with Sukiyaki Western Django, and his film Spree shocked and enchanted virtual audience, helping to secure his position as one of the most discussed directors that year. In his new film The Code, Eugene continues telling the story of Celine and her boyfriend Jay and how the two of them strive to make sense of the world around them while trying to understand the world-structuring phenomenon of the COVID-19 pandemic through cinema as Celine is an aspiring documentarian.
This premise does not appear to be fully investigated and abused as it should by the filmmakers as it allows a deeper understanding of how the world wide web was used in inappropriate ways particularly by those of the view that the COVID-19 virus is hardly a cause for concern. The movie definitely has a quality that shows how mocking masks even in the car is a normal thing for Celine and Jay. Not only do they disregard most of the effort needed to avoid contracting the virus, but they also don’t seem to twist in any perspective as to what is acceptable. Obviously this between the first days of COVID where everyone knew almost nothing about the new virus and the concept of self-centeredness is one that has been avoided by many movies that have depicted the pandemic so far.
Spree included, Kotlyarenko for example incorporates the effects of the digital divide in Celine and Jay’s relationship during COVID, but in a very interesting way with the aid of hidden cameras, zoom, facetime, gopro’s, drones, 360 degrees, text messages screen shots and xdcams among other tools. The language is always updating and developing in an attempt to diversify how the audience imagines the relationship dynamics between the couple during the course of the pandemic.
Most precious is how I recall a phrase from Kotlyarenko repeated many times and bringing the focus back to the fact that it’s a meta-narrative no matter how sweeping the moment is: We are told directly how the image was shot.
But it is exactly this, which Khatya does not even try to hide, that makes its meta-narrative more engaging than Celine’s narrative: it is actually completed at all times. But we consistently consider the act of creation: the act of creation that filmmakers themselves undertake. However, he does the cardinal error of replacing a delicate yet powerful explanation of the way facades are built in Celine’s world on the net with brutish immanence that is banal horrible and unfunny.
The way Kotlyarenko behaved towards Spree, it was not the most patriotic thing on the part of an artist but at least it was relevant. In the case of Code, he builds on Spree’s theme and explains that online culture allows for more artificiality and alienation. He doesn’t however focus on this thesis from a standpoint of subversion as it seems and stylistic choices that are solely based on tic tok would never allow for such a thing.
Indeed, our civilization is going down the tubes, with scientific knowledge ridiculed in favor of anti-vaccine and zero-covid internet ‘influencers’ who trade complete control over their followers for obedience, and egotism has become the bedrock of most peoples’ social architecture due to a decline in moral values.
These chronic ‘online’ people are backed by real-life funds and resources, so they can afford doing delusional things like Kotlyarenko showed in his interview. So incompetent were some of these online personas, and I smiled when one of Celine’s friends says: “COVID is the big thing. Being a big hit, I can bet.” Of course, Celine does not really set out to film about COVID but to benefit from the unfolding circumstances, that’s what drives her. In one of the scenes, she records an interview with a woman whose father is dying of the disease. And instead of empathizing with and caring for her, Celine and Jay shoot a video of this woman until she is so distressed that she pounds her head against the glass. It’s exploitation followed by artificialism, empathy plays no part.
But however hard he attempts to criticize the online culture for its telltale alienating aspects, none of his works ever captivate us enough to pay any attention to the underlying principle. His works make one question every time how does Jay go about his life, why does he relate to Celine in the way he does, and how do they even come up with such absurd ideas as trying to convince Celine into using the N-word in some sort of misguided justification of her character? Exactly how does Celine want the world to perceive her in the age of a pandemic? The answer to all those lies in an infinitely repetitive cycle of overcoming every original point of the film by delivering impractical representations of the message.
In this context, it is also imperative to highlight Dasha’s unfortunate acting because there is little that could possibly be worse than her performance of dull monotones in contrast to what essentially is self-mocking humor, as attempted by Kotlyarenko. Even in Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of The World, a sharp cautionary tale with fierce commentary not just on COVID but also the ways in which internet culture creates illusions, Ilinca Manolache distinctly embodied the character Bobita with depth and subtlety.
Here, in The Code people use immersion to become part of the entire situation, which is perhaps the misleading part of it all. Maybe this was intentional, but it becomes rather dull and boring rather fast. Instead of expressing frustration over the fact that the pandemic discourse so thoroughly disallowed anyone from interfering with the conversation’s flow, Kotlyarenko fills his picture with plenty of provocations intended to evoke rage in the viewers.
I guess it worked in Fantasia, though not the slightest interest in interrogating what there was lost build up the promise of its opening scene. One can always stylistically reflect back to Radu Jude self-invented title cards animation and concept of Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World’s scenes floating within Celine and Jay’s world rather than reverting back to a starting concept, but even that will fail to give Kotlyarenko the impact he wants. How the brilliant Jude crafted a satire about the enshittification of civilization and its imminent end for us all.
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