Reflective Encounters

“Xavier Seron’s dark comedy Squish offers an amusing deconstruction of bourgeois society, exploring what would happen when one’s bubble of safety and ignorance bursts. The film is initially characterised by a sense of order, with a consistent use of still shots within a 4:3 aspect ratio, capturing the eerie, manicured nature of suburbia, befitting the carefully controlled life of the family at the film’s center. At least that is before Seron shows a close up of a dead bird being run over. As the film progresses this sense of order is continuously undercut by bursts of violence and graphic imagery: with bones crunching and blood spurting. Squish makes the greatest impact on a sensory level.

In an ironic turn, the more the violent mishaps escalate, the more emotionally detached the family becomes. In their bubble of privilege, death is treated with an absurd sense of callousness, being argued away as a respite from a life of bills, epidemics and pain. That’s not to say the film endorses this viewpoint: by the end Seron rejiggers the rules of his own universe, presenting it as a self-correcting apparatus that only exists to torture the family, as they’re finally forced to contend with the value of life and death.”

— Matthew Chan