In Fabric
A surreal, sensuous fever dream rendered in the most lurid shades and textures, In Fabric succeeds first and foremost as a tragicomedy about a cursed commodity. As he explores and regards his chosen nexus of eroticism and consumerism with a fervent mixture of desire, dread, and disgust, writer-director Peter Strickland performs many strange and beguiling feats. The most impressive may be his ability to satirize the operations of fetishism while crafting a fully realized fetish object himself.
Indeed, if the day ever comes for Strickland to exploit his fourth feature’s merchandising potential and spin it off into an Etsy boutique, the selection of offerings will be incomparable. Like the phone-book-thick catalogue that showcases the wares at the film’s principal setting—a fictional shop named Dentley and Soper’s, located in contains a carefully curated series of tantalizing objects, many of which practically demand their placement in discerning homes and collections out in the real world. (Just in regards to the movie’s many examples of graphic design that cry out for limited-edition lithographs, I am holding out for the poster visible on the wall of a bank office promoting “The 19 Concepts of Transactioneering” to its no-doubt grateful employees.)
