I walked out of my house earlier this week and was met with a blast of frigid air to my face. I had to shovel out my car on my student-teaching snow day, and I have to carve out time to remote-start my car at least twice every morning before I begin my journey at 7 a.m. In addition, I’ve had to steady my pace when I walk to my car, because of course we’re just seven girls living at our wonderful house called Castle but we have no rock salt to prevent slips and dips to the ground.
When I woke up to the first heavy snow on my snow day, it was almost like I could hear the maniacal Bo Burnham laughter in the distance of my brain. When the first day hits grey, cold, and dry, I know that winter has finally reached me. Subsequently, it’s “Inside” season.
If you didn’t know, Bo Burnham created, self-produced, and authored this Netflix special he titled “Inside”. This special was plastered all over 2021 TikTok trends, but that doesn’t even do it justice. It wasn’t until I sat down to actually watch the film that I was able to gush over how well done the songs were paired with the scenes Burnham filmed of himself along with the lighting and blatant realities he sang about that were felt by so many.
Let’s paint the scene: it’s the Covid shut-down of 2020, you just turned thirty years old, your mental health is tanking and you are having anxiety attacks on stage during your comedic stand-up when you’re supposed to be the person that makes people laugh and happy. Oh, and, you are agoraphobic to the point where you cannot leave your house because all the politicians are telling you to stay put inside and to stay away from loved ones. But also the politicians that are telling you this are corrupt in some way and are concerned only about themselves and their political agendas. Oh, and Donald Trump is your president.
Burnham did precisely this: He took light of the situation or even just placed his struggles in a way that connected people during a lonely period through music and humor. It was a masterpiece. So, whenever winter arrives and life feels so quiet and lonesome that I can hear the snow pinging outside my window, I want to press play on the “Inside” soundtrack. Winter can feel isolating to me, so I take comfort in re-watching this film each time winter rolls around for the first time.
I think what makes this film so comfortable in its… uncomfortableness… is that every aspect of this screams authenticity and humanity. Burnham trudges along cinematic art remixed with comedy and tragedy. When I feel most alone, it’s time to let Bo Burnham defrost and do his thing to my brain. What he did here cannot possibly be replicated by anyone else or any piece of film.
I feel like the content of “Inside” is the definition of “you had to be there”. Meaning, you truly had to endure and live through an isolated Covid world.
Let’s end with this: If you aren’t going to watch the entire film, perhaps you’ll watch and listen to one of (I think) the best songs and performances from the film.