Barb and Star go to Vista del Mar

Movie. Josh Greenbaum. 2021

A pair of friends go on a vacation to Florida that changes their lives.

Barb and Star reads like Twin Peaks, if Twin Peaks was earnest and hilarious and sweet instead of vaguely angry that you chose to spend your time watching TV. This movie is amazing, and you should watch it.

Barb and Star is movie a constantly threatening to destroy itself. Almost every decision in the movie is some refutation of the way this particular movie moment is supposed to to work. The movie is constantly playing chicken with its medium.

Inside and around the madness, though, are people we know and like - the pair of friends and the center of the movie aren’t real, exactly, but they’re real enough, in ways that make you care about them and understand them, and follow along laughing when the movie does a pirouette at the edge of a cliff or unwinds or otherwise refuses to behave like a story. The movie plays chicken with its medium, and the movie wins.