"Sometimes I Think About Dying" - The Movie
A case made that this movie is about the average life of an INTJ woman. Not a depressed one, or one on the spectrum. INTJ. A little bit of review, too.
spoilers ahead
The 2023 movie Sometimes I Think About Dying, directed by Rachel Lambert and starring Daisy Ridley, must have been a delight to watch for anyone familiar with Jungian archetypes, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and/or Twin Peaks.
Setting it all in a small harbour town, Lambert really pulled through with the supremely comfy scenes of eerie stillness that small towns are known for (*cough* Twin Peaks *cough*), and for which everyone yearns, until they actually experience it.
Going through the screenshots, one thing is glaringly obvious - this movie is dark. The light and the colours are soft and subdued and dulled. It’s an interesting experience.
Our protagonist, Fran, is a little woman that does not fraternise. She does not wish to be on anyone’s list for anything, and while boomers are complaining about big ships, she fantasises about hanging from a crane.
There is a dash of magical realism sprinkled throughout the movie with her fantasy death scenes, which are beautiful in a goth kind of way.
Sometimes I Think About Dying currently holds a rating of 6.5/10 with just under 4,000 ratings on IMDB and this is easily explainable.
Normies do not understand the inner life of an INTJ woman and they will never have the capacity to comprehend it.
They called Fran a “socially awkward isolation-enjoyer” in one of the reviews, and the movie itself a “subtle movie about depression”, and I knew, I just knew, that Joe McNormie decided to watch a “woman flick with Daisy Ridley from St*r W*rs hehe” and scoff at the “uneventful” scenes and sit down and type reviews with their greasy fingers.
Fran is not depressed. She is not autistic or neurospicy or on the spectrum. She does not hyperfixate on spreadsheets or miss social cues. She fully understands social cues, and that standing in the doorway because a co-worker blocked it was the only option for her because she did not want to seem rude.
She has her guard up at maximum throttle, full sail, at all times. Because she is an INTJ woman that was probably hurt before, and she simply wishes to avoid it happening ever again, even at the expense of a social life.
And the one time she relaxes, and her body indicates a glimmer of opening up where she goes from this…
…to this…
…and asks the love interest actual questions about him and his life, with genuine interest, he tells her he’s been divorced. Twice.
Honestly, this is the point where the movie could have ended and all the introverted people would nod in understanding. But we can’t have that, sadly, and our dear Fran is healed when she experiences true empathy for another human being.
The reason why the movie is so dark and the colours are subdued is because Fran rarely experiences strong emotions. Perhaps she does not allow herself to feel them fully and was just hoping to coast by without having to confront herself.
Sadly, this is not how any of human interactions work, and to maintain any relationship beyond annoying pleasantries by the cubicle, one has to show a little bit of that soft white underbelly, a little bit of vulnerability. So when the retired woman showed despair because of a hopeless situation that is out of her hands, Fran felt that. Deeply.
And of course, the movie has to end in a positive note. Oh well.
Aside from that, there is a severe lack of representation of specifically INTJ women and their complex inner worlds in media, so watching this movie was refreshing, and I’m not even an INTJ. They’re usually portrayed as villains and antagonists (seriously, check the database), so a female main character who is an INTJ, and an unhealthy one at that, is a real treat.
all the screenshots are from the movie