netflix's new 8-hour silent film is giving everyone ego death, and tbh i feel seen
the streaming giant's new prestige film, 'monday,' is an eight-hour, single-take shot of a woman doomscrolling and it's literally causing a public health crisis of feels. is this art or just, like, a mirror?
u ok? literally no one is after watching netflix’s new film, ‘monday.’ and like, that’s so valid. the movie, if you can even call it that, is an eight-hour, single-take, completely silent film of a woman sitting on her beige couch and just… scrolling. for eight hours. there is no plot. she does not speak. she just scrolls through a feed that we, the audience, can’t even see. the only sounds are the ambient hum of a refrigerator and the faint, tinny audio bleed from her phone.
and everyone is, to put it mildly, unwell.
social media is a trauma-dump of viewers reporting they experienced 'profound existential dread' and 'total ego dissolution' around the four-hour mark, which is when the main character, like, sighs. a really big sigh. i had to pause and do some somatic breathwork myself. my therapist, who is on maternity leave and has firm boundaries about texts, is probably so worried about me.
the film is being called a masterpiece of 'ambient cinema' and a 'brutal indictment of late-stage digital capitalism,' which, yes, the vibes are absolutely toxic. but it's also causing, like, a legit problem. emergency rooms are reporting a spike in people coming in with 'vague feelings of cosmic despair.'
netflix co-ceo ted sarandos released a statement that felt… aggressive. he said, '"monday" represents a paradigm shift in narrative empathy. we aren’t just asking you to watch a story; we are asking you to inhabit a consciousness. the engagement metrics on this are unprecedented.' which feels like a really corporate way of saying 'we are profiting from your dissociative episodes.'
personally, watching 'monday' was the most seen i’ve ever felt by a piece of content. it was also deeply triggering and i had to spend the entire next day under my 25-pound weighted blanket (you can get the same one from my amazon storefront, it’s a lifesaver) with my emotional support diffuser going. (also on my storefront. lavender is key for processing algorithmic trauma.)
it's like, they finally made a movie about the crushing weight of just *existing* right now. the endless, empty scrolling. the low-grade hum of anxiety. the beige-ness of it all. it’s a masterpiece, i think? i also think it might be a human rights violation. i need a nap.
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Reader Discussion (6)
This wasn't an art film, it was the cheapest content they could possibly produce. Eight hours of 'engagement' for the cost of one actress, a couch, and an iPhone. Sarandos is laughing all the way to the bank.
Calling this a 'film' is a category error. It's a work of durational art that critiques the cinematic gaze itself. Anyone comparing this to a conventional narrative simply doesn't understand the medium.
The article says 'single-take' but that's almost certainly false. No cinema camera has the battery or media capacity for an uninterrupted 8-hour take. They used hidden edits or a broadcast rig, which compromises the entire 'authenticity' premise.
You get 'ego death' from watching a woman on a couch? Try working a 12-hour shift in a factory. This generation is unbelievably soft.
This film serves as a powerful, if unintentional, illustration of 'acedia'—a state of listlessness and spiritual torpor. The audience's reaction is a fascinating case study in mass-media induced existential dread.
Of course the coastal elites make a movie to normalize depression and inaction. They want you sad and hopeless so you're easier to control. It's psychological warfare.