FANTASTIC FEST: Kim Jee-woon Skewers The “Auteur” In ‘Cobweb’

Look, I don’t like movies about making movies. Too often the self-referential navel-gazing comes across as self-aggrandizing instead of actually deconstructing the issues and neuroses that don’t always yield good art. Too often we see looks into tumultuous sets and terrible times only for the piece of art that comes out being a masterpiece. But what happens when it is just absolutely, positively, dumb? Kim Jee-woon answers that with Cobweb. 

Directed and written by Kim with a screenplay from Shin Yeon-Shick Cobweb is far different than his twisting genre films. But somehow, the film still captures larger themes and deep humor that the iconic auteur has brought to his storytelling. More importantly, though, director Kim Jee-woon’s ability to tell stories of obsession makes Cobweb’s frantic pace and acceleration into a masterpiece a story to get lost in.

Set in the 1970s, Cobweb isn’t necessarily a genre film so much as it’s a film about making a genre film. Plagued by recurring nightmares of ways that he can improve his film, Director Kim played by the iconic Song Kang-ho, rushes to the studio with rewrites on his already completed film, the eponymous Cobweb. But with actors already committed to different projects, censors breathing down their necks, and virtually no funds, the act of reshooting has to be distilled into a single chaotic day.

Butting heads with the president of his studio, the filmmaker turns to Mido, a passionate producer who believes in his vision to turn his little genre flick into a masterpiece. Pushed by the assertions around him that he didn’t actually write his debut film, Director Kim has something to prove, and he will do anything with the help of Mido and his crew to get it done, even as the drama on set starts to mirror elements of the film causing a type of chaos that is either laughable hijinks or “oh god what have I done” all depending on timing. From self-centered actors to uncertain staff, and the government censors all interrupting the reshoots, the film’s pacing becomes a race against the clock to finish the film and avoid tragedy along the way.

Cobweb is a fantastic film when you just look at the push to change a film that’s already been finished. The complexities of reshooting and the interpersonal relations and squabbles are some of the film’s finest moments, thanks to the stacked cast of actors. The deeply funny exchanges capitalize on timing and errors that cause chain reactions to build audience investment.

Still, the best part of Cobweb is the absolutely wild film within the film that kinetically captures the 1970s Korean cinema and leaves the audience guessing if what is being made truly is a magnum opus or a B-movie cut. Erratically paced to match Director Kim’s frantic desperation to be seen as a filmmaking great, Kim Jee-woon delivers two films that nestle within each other perfectly, and each necessitates the other. As we see the finished product over time, we learn more about Director Kim’s artistry and get closer to unlocking who he is as a filmmaker and a fool.

The technical beauty of Cobweb comes in its final act. Kim Jee-woon brings the audience through the painstaking process of creating one long shot and the intricacy involved in pulling it off from actors, stunt doubles, staff, and more. Only for it to be shown to us within the context of the film as something incredibly small and of almost no consequence. In one film, Kim Jee-woon lampoons the auteur and those who sacrifice their crews and morals to get “the shot.”

Cobweb is a movie about filmmaking that captures dedication and artistry but also how obsession and dismissal of the other voices involved in the process don’t yield masterpieces but at the same time, it’s just another day in filmmaking, easily moved on from or at least forgotten. Once the last act begins it’s clear why this wasn’t chosen as South Korea’s Oscar’s entry. While Hollywood loves films about creating cinema, critiquing that landscape by showcasing the farcical nature of the revered auteur status isn’t how you win them over.

Campy in the places where it needs to be, grim in others, and always with something to say, Cobweb stands apart from other movies about movies as something truly unique, if only because Kim Jee-woon looks at the navel of cinema and calls it a clown.

Cobweb screened as a part of the Fantastic Fest 2023 program.