Sometimes, a movie comes along, and just knocks you flat out on your back.
It doesn’t happen often (thankfully – I’ve got litter trays to clean), but when it does, it’s always an unexpected treat. And the most recent movie I’ve seen that’s had that effect on me is 2022’s Give Me Pity!, directed by Amanda Kramer and starring Sophie Von Haselberg.
It’s easy to tell you who made this movie, harder, to be honest, to tell you what it’s about. Von Haselberg stars as Sissy St. Clair, an established entertainment star hosting her long-awaited first TV special – that’s how it begins, a Vaseline-on-the-lens, shimmery, vaguely anachronistic little fantasy of musical and comedy. But things soon take a turn into the esoteric, as Sissy begins to spiral down psychological passageways, under the watchful eye of a mysterious man just off-stage.
The closest comparison I have for it is this year’s Late Night with the Devil – the talk show set-up with a horror twist, the pending doom that hangs over the whole thing. But Give Me Pity! is a film more boldly dedicated to just the downright bizarre, in a way that I can see being cloying for some people – the long monologues, the song-and-dance numbers, Von Haselberg’s charismatic performance punched through with moments of horrible awkwardness.
Sissy takes us through the stories of her life as a child and as a star – the real ones and the fake ones, though it’s hard to tell which is which – in the soft-focus style of classic talk shows, but it’s punctuated with these moments of unsettling self-awareness. How much of this is taking place in Sissy’s head, where this is, whether this is some kind of hell or purgatory or just a really long bus journey where you’ve forgotten your headphones, is never definitively established, and I really like that. It invites you – forces you, basically – to totally step into Sissy’s world, to focus on her story and string together the kernels of truth that fill out the background of this movie. It’s indulgent, but that’s the point – Sissy’s indulgent, and what Von Haselberg imbues her with makes the movie worth a watch alone.
I loved Give Me Pity!, and I’m really surprised not to see it talked about more – there’s so many interesting storytelling choices here, plenty to speculate on and draw your own conclusions from. I would love to hear about your takes on the film, if you’ve seen it – jump into the comments and let’s get all self-pitying!
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By Lou MacGregor
(header image via Sense of Cinema)
No But Listen 