A hybrid documentary feature film about the genesis of “memetic magick” and its application by the alt-right in the United States.
America’s fringe never gets tiring to watch. If there’s anything I’ve learned from documentaries like “Feels Good Man” and the work of Andrew Callaghan (“All Gas No Brakes” and his new “Channel 5”) it’s that the fringes of America are a lot closer than you think. “You Can’t Kill Meme” indulges wholeheartedly in its topic without any fact-checking whatsoever, creating more of an instruction manual on the topic of “Memetic Magick” than any sort of unique perspective. The documentary leans too far into its subject matter without any evaluation whatsoever creating a documentary that feels as homegrown as its subject’s ideas.
Never underestimate Middle America. “Feels Good Man” brought an incredible story to light with an impressive narrative throughline tying all the bizarre social mechanics of internet memes into larger issues of group thought and propaganda. “You Can’t Kill Meme” feels much more like something its predecessor would’ve explored as an example. This documentary explores “Memetic Magick” which, as best I can describe it, is the power of memeing something into existence. The subject gets touched on in “Feels Good Man” but never to the degree of this movie. The film is so focused on explaining the mechanics of this bizarre world it ends up deep-diving into the content it tries to explain.
The documentary itself interviews a handful of subjects about the concept of both magic and the more specific “meme magic.” Each interview subject babbles out an incoherent answer, then ties their own version of magic into politics. Almost all of the subjects claim to be more enlightened than everyone around them, but instead of exposing that commonality, it just continues forward, accepting them at face value. There’s an intuition there to afford these subjects grace. That intuition erases any semblance of objectivity. The documentarian notes her own personal journey through this weird rabbit hole until at the very end the film wraps up like a powerful endorsement of meme magic instead of an anthropological study.
Each section of the film explores different concepts of magic. They’re tied together with trite narration provided by the documentarian explaining complex social mechanics and ascribing them a holy or spiritual complexity. It comes off as intellectual pandering. Plenty of people might be in awe at the ideas presented but closer inspection reveals them to be nothing new or noteworthy. In fact, the attempts to “enlighten” the audience require so many convoluted thought patterns it all just sounds like gibberish in the end. We’re left with a woman claiming Obama flew to Mars on a secret space mission and his father’s been time traveling since he was five years old.
“You Can’t Kill Meme” disappointed me since it failed to explore the humanity behind its subject. In embracing “meme magick” full force, it wastes time explaining over and over again just what its subject is. The film can really only be accepted as an artifact of a niche subculture. We can view the film itself as an attempt at “meme magick” as opposed to a documentation of the movement. In that sense it’s intriguing, but in pretty much any other context it fails to succeed where “Feels Good Man” did. My advice? Go watch “Feels Good Man” instead. Much more enticing. I wish they’d update it to document the new presidency. See? I’m already dreaming of something much more entertaining.
“You Can’t Kill Meme” recently had its World Premiere at the 2021 Fantasia International Film Festival
this documentary absolutely sucked and it was offensive to see those magicians edited in that fashion.
Totally agree!