Sick of Myself

Kristine Kujath Thorp

Billed as an "unromantic comedy", Kristoffer Borgli's Sick of Myself is a body horror satire from Norway. This 2022 film went unreleased in America, but the enlightened poohbahs at Vinegar Syndrome have released it here on a sterling disc. Kristine Kujath Thorp stars as Signe who works at a bakery and lives with her boyfriend, Thomas (Erik Sæther). Signe is in a competitive relationship with Thomas, one that is replete with one-upmanship. What rankles Signe is that Thomas, a kleptomaniacal artist, is on his way up in the art world and is the cynosure of media attention. Signe responds, with the help of a drug dealer who lives with his mother (a verry funny Steiner Klouman Hallert), by procuring a Russian drug called Lidexol, its tablets a sickly yellow, that reportedly causes one's skin to rot if abused. Signe begins hoovering up the pills and soon she is on the cover of the tabloids as a sufferer of a rare malady. 

The downfall of Signe, and Thomas, is somewhat predictable. The quarry of Borgli's satire, primarily narcissism, the art world, fashion, and social media, are such large targets that it is impossible for him to miss with all his barbs. However, Signe and Thomas are thoroughly unlikeable. Who can we root for? Borgli doesn't care, but he leavens this with his deft handling of the bourgeois milieu and supporting cast. Even when Signe and Thomas are at there most self-centered, the characters and settings around them provide glimpses of ambivalent reality. That said, I enjoyed both Thorp and Sæther's turns as self-absorbed sociopaths. Sharp performances in the most tactile sense of the word. Sick of Myself tends to prod its audience. Despite its faults, I prefer the bracing facility of Sick of Myself to two recent highly praised films with similar themes, Anatomy of a Fall and The Substance. Both good films where supporting characters descend into caricature (Dennis Quaid in The Substance, the prosecutor in the Anatomy...). Borgli followed Sick of Myself with the equally promising Dream Scenario. His next film, "The Drama", will star Zendaya and Robert Pattinson.