This is a weird movie. I appreciate that. The set-up is simple. A man answers an ad on Craigslist that offers $1000 for a day's worth of filming at a remote cabin. He's not sure what to expect, and jokes on the way about meeting up with a creepy older woman who wants a massage. It's a cute little subversion on classic tropes (not that there's many women left who'd answer a message from a man who wants to meet alone in the woods with a videocamera, but hey). When he arrives, he's greeted by a weird, creepy dude, Josef, his boss for the next few hours.
At first his new employer is just weird. Unsettling, creepy, very overly friendly, appears to have mental issues, but mostly just weird. Suffering from terminal illness, depressed, seems to need a friend. The protagonist is naive enough to buy it. But for me this was the best part of the film. Because I don't buy it, even though the protagonist does.
I see Josef as a man who quietly manipulates, always pushing the boundaries to see how far he can squirm in, always sitting on the edge of uncomfortable, the line of "oh I was just kidding". This is something women experience from creepy men day in and day out, and men don't believe us when we say we have something to fear from these quietly manipulative creeps.
But the truth is, there's something to fear. From my analysis, Josef isn't actually "slow", he's brilliant. His moves are all calculated to elicit the response he wants. He uses faux friendliness, a push to have just one more drink, a hug that lasts too long, to get his victim to submit to him, all under the guise of "not understanding boundaries" even though the grin he gets when he breaks them shows all to well he understands. The main character, being another dude, gives him the benefit of the doubt for far too long.
And without spoiling too much, let's say that wasn't the best idea. For a movie that is literally just two white guys, I feel like this had a surprisingly feminist message if you just dig into it a little. Obsession, stalking, and abuse are rarely portrayed as happening to men, even though they do. And this film in particular showed how the things we tell people in those situations are actively harmful. "Just be nice to him", "Oh, he's just a touchy-feely type!", "Don't be rude"... when your gut tells you something is "off" about a dude, it's terrible advice.
When your gut says "this dude is a CREEP", do the right thing. Run.
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