Obsession ★★★1/2

Availability: Showing in theaters worldwide. First streaming availability this Tuesday, June 30. Distribution by Focus Features and Universal Pictures. Wider online rental and purchase availability expected later this year, free on Peacock (September), with Netflix distribution in 2027. See JustWatch here for current availability.

Be Careful What You Wish For

The film sweeping the global market and putting millions of Gen Zers in theaters has been variously described as horror (most often), thriller, supernatural, and comedy. It’s all those, but also, curiously, a drama, its focus intensely on a relationship, that of attractive 20-somethings Bear and Nikki, whose futile attempts to tell the other they are romantically interested takes up the first tortuous 30 minutes of the movie’s 1:48 running time.

The happy couple—or are they?—Nikki (Inde Navarrette) and Bear (Michael Johnston).

The framed posters above the bed are real or fake vintage from the turn of the last century

to the 2000s, indicative both of the high production values

and a nod to the mix of genres and appeal.

In the opening scene, we watch Bear tell Nikki she’s the only one for him. Only it’s not Nikki; it’s their friend Sarah standing in for her, and what we’ve been watching is a rehearsal, similar to Robert Pattinson talking to himself in the opening of this year’s “The Drama,” and evocative of Nathan Fielder’s set-ups in TV’s “Rehearsal.” The fourth member of the quartet of friends, Ian, is on hand to film and roundly criticize Bear’s old-fashioned “schmaltz.” When life’s curtain of reality parts, Bear makes so many feeble tries at disclosing his feelings to Nikki that you want to yell from your seat “Get on with it!” The pleasurable agony of watching the inarticulate, anxious Bear unable to spit it out is part of the deftness of writer and director Curry Barker, 24 years old when he wrote it and straight out of YouTube.

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Most often described as horror, but also, curiously, a drama.

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While shopping for a gift for Nikki in a crystal gift shop (where else?), Bear buys a One Wish Willow wooden block, even though he is obliquely warned by the slacker saleswoman that it could lead to death. Enter the horror element: wishing Nikki would like him results in her obsession with Bear.

The One Wish Willow,

on sale in a crystal gift shop,

introduces the horror element.

A delightful if ironic montage (as in the recent "Tuner"), an indication we are not going to enjoy a classic romance, comprises the falling-in-love segment, which is quickly supplanted by the obsession itself. Nikki’s oppressive, possessive, and surveilling jealousy, and Bear’s entrapment—he’s oddly bereft of any skills to counter it—are the beating comedic and horrific heart of the story. A dead cat, a duct-taped door, Nikki standing in one spot—vomiting, peeing, and defecating in place while she waits all day for Bear to come home from work—suggest what’s in store. The lunch she prepares for her man will be tasty, indeed.

Inde Navarrette is superb at switching

from lovely Nikki to "Freaky Nikki," including with this stilted smile.

Bear, Nikki, Ian, and Sarah (essentially the sum total of the cast) work in a music store. Their un-tucked, short-sleeved striped shirts with sewn-on logos are markers of their dead-end jobs. Nikki announces she’s giving 2 weeks’ notice, to do what she has no clue. Bear tells her he wants to be a food critic; his resume? he likes food and will eat for free. That’s the Gen Z fantasy and frustration with work in America, their view of a bleak future.

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Nikki’s obsession with Bear explores Gen Z’s fear of intimacy—of coupling, of cohabitation, of the long-term relationship.

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Similarly, Nikki’s obsession with Bear explores Gen Z’s fear of intimacy—of coupling, of cohabitation, of the long-term relationship; they don’t “date” or “go steady,” preferring the chill, obligation-less environment of the group, the pack. Nonetheless, Barker is wonderfully clever at demonstrating the ways in which couples interact, the back-and-forth demonstrations of love, affection, and yes, irritation, much of it laughable, some of it heartbreaking, ultimately horrific. Michael Johnston plays Bear with all the charming fumbling of a young, neurotic Hugh Grant or an early Paul Mescal. Inde Navarrette is nothing short of marvelous as Nikki, who turns on a dime from natural to freaky and back. We will see more of these actors, here in their first major screen roles.

Ian (Cooper Tomlinson),

here in his striped shirt with sewn-on logo, a symbol of his and his friends' dead-end employment in the music store, adds a healthy dose of humor to the story.

The supporting duo of Cooper Tomlinson (Ian) and Megan Lawless (Sarah) put on worthy performances as well. Tomlinson, with his faulty reading of people and situations, brings a strong dose of humor. Several other minor roles are filled with actors playing against type (in one case a disembodied, affectless voice, bringing Bear a message he won’t want to hear).

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Bear lives in what he tells Nikki is his grandmother’s house, crammed with “stuff,” as if Gen Z has to live in an environment not of their own making.

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We found the settings intriguing. Bear lives in what he tells Nikki is his grandmother’s house, basically unchanged from that generation, complete with a tube TV. Like the music store, grandma’s house is crammed with “stuff,” as if Gen Z has to live in an environment not of their own making, but in someone else’s space, and a claustrophobic space at that. One imagines Bear in the Progressive Insurance ads which feature futile attempts to prevent the younger generation from becoming their parents.

Production values are high, especially considering the $750,000 budget (it was sold at the Toronto International Film Festival for $15 million and its worldwide box office gross 40 days after release is more than $300 million). The acting is exceptional, the script taut, the communal laughter of full theaters infectious.

A couple of killings­—one brutal—a few jump-scares, more than a few moments of shock and disbelief, Nikki’s superb piercing screams. Go with the flow. Laugh along. “Obsession” is worth it.

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She says: My first reaction—this is not for our demographic. Second, maybe it speaks to more than one type of media consumer.

He says: The guy on the phone from Willow could be Bear’s alter ego. As much as he’d like to be free, he is unable to move on, to find a way forward. 

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Date: 2026

Director: Curry Barker

Starring: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless

Country: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 108 minutes

Other Awards: 5 wins and 4 other nominations to date