We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
Director: Jane Schoenbrun Run Time: 86 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 2022
Starring: Anna Cobb, Michael J Rogers
Premiere Run!
Like the evil twin of Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, Jane Schoenbrun’s stunning debut feature begins with a lonely teen preparing a video for the internet. Unlike Eighth Grade, WE’RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD’S FAIR doesn’t offer its protagonist an easy-going father to offer her help. Instead, Casey (a truly remarkable Anna Cobb) remains isolated and falls ever deeper down an increasingly bizarre and potentially dangerous rabbit hole.
By reciting a mantra and wiping blood on her computer monitor, Casey has entered the “World’s Fair Challenge,” an immersive online horror role playing game that promises to alter the lives of those who play it. As she falls further away from reality, Casey does indeed begin to experience strange manifestations—but are they caused by the game or are they coming from her own subconscious? And what exactly are the intentions of JLB, a middle-aged man and the only other observer of the game to reach out to her?
“Part experimental unease and part heartbreaking character drama, writer-director Jane Schoenbrun’s unique look at modern-day interpersonal dynamics is a genre-blurring marvel.” – Matt Barone, Nightstream Film Festival
“Schoenbrun’s exploration of internet culture through a chilling coming-of-age story is an auspicious, wildly smart narrative feature debut.” – Kate Erbland, Indiewire
“Exploits the overlap between tedium and fright, and locates both in the everyday dystopian realm of the internet.” – A.O. Scott, New York Times