A Look Inside Burnham's Special: Inside

Review: Bo Burnham: Inside (2021)

By Meg Davy

This week, for the theme of documentary, we voted on watching Bo Burnham’s “comedy” special that documents his attempts to cope and keep his sanity during the infamous COVID-19 lockdown during 2020. The creation of this special took Burnham about a year as he mentions throughout the film. I watched this when it first released on Netflix and rewatching it again after the craze of COVID has for the most part calmed down, definitely has a completely different vibe. Rather than actually being in the times of COVID and wondering when it would ever be over, watching it now feels more like a reminiscence of what was such an awful time for everyone. I think Burnham amazingly captures the rapid decline of many peoples' mental states throughout the pandemic while also adding his classic ironic and satirical comedy spin on it.

Not only is the story writing and editing great in its chaotic sense, but the cinematography always wows me simply because of how little Burnham had to work with. Burnham makes excellent use of the very limited space he’s in while filming and he manages to make every scene unique and different simply through the song, the editing, and most of all, the lighting. To me, it seemed like this documentary was the perfect excuse for Burnham to really play around with all different kinds of fun lighting and set ups and he definitely took advantage of that. It’s crazy how different he was able to make his living space look just by changing up the angle and lighting of the shot.

Furthermore, his songs in general are always just great. During discussion, Sachaly mentioned how the sounds of his songs just scratch an itch in our brains and I think that just about accurately sums it up. With that, the messages throughout the film get really deep really fast but, right before you can really interpret and wonder what he meant, he switches up to some crazy song that has you laughing like his “Sexting” song. I think he has a really good balance of songs throughout the film which kept me entertained.

Overall, I personally enjoy this movie and, nearing the end of lockdown and the pandemic, it gave me something to think about and enjoy. Now, however, it’s something to watch and reflect on the times experienced throughout 2020 which always feel like a blur.