I've long admired Karyn Kusama without ever falling head over heels in love with her body of work. Chalk it up to adolescence or masculinity, either is an excuse for not engaging with what she handed me: expertly crafted visual art masquerading as genre. I was just waiting until she found a script worthy of her enormous talent, it turned out.
Last year's "Destroyer" put me squarely back on her frequency. It's everything a studio film ought to be nowadays: post-modern, unsparing, ugly, cool, unforgettable. Kusama's days of vexing audiences may be everlasting but let's hope her days without a built-in audience are coming to a swift close. She's a real, electrifying talent and it's time we all got on the same page about her.
To watch more of Scout Tafoya's video essays from his series The Unloved, click here.
