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Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli talks about his new comedy, Sick Of Myself – a gross-out portrait of 21st-century narcissism and our ‘timeless desire’ to be validated, seen and pitied
When Signe has sex, she likes to imagine her funeral. Sat around the coffin, the Norwegian artist’s friends are weeping uncontrollably, wishing they’d appreciated her when she was alive. So, too, are her family, though not her absent father, who gets turned away at the entrance. The protagonist of Sick of Myself, then, has issues, some of which can’t be fixed by medication – at least not the way Signe approaches pharmaceuticals.
An Oslo-set, gross-out comedy written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli, Sick of Myself presents Signe (Ninjababy star Kristine Kujath Thorp) as a wannabe author who literally poisons herself to achieve viral infamy. Sick of her boyfriend Thomas (Eirik Sæther), an artist who neglects to mention her in magazine profiles, Signe stumbles upon a drug that causes Cronenbergian skin conditions if overconsumed. Hiding her methods, the Larry David-esque schemer manipulates her face and basks in the online sympathy. “It’s not very visual to show close-ups of phones or web pages,” says Borgli. “This happened to be a visual way to depict cultural malaise.”
Borgli is speaking to me in March from LA, where, for him, it’s 9am, just before a long day editing his new, Nicolas Cage-starring A24 feature Dream Scenario. The 38-year-old Norwegian filmmaker has been around long enough that Dazed interviewed him for A Place We Call Reality, DRIB, and Wherever I Look, I See Myself. Memorably, in 2013, the Guardian mistakenly reviewed his mockumentary Whateverest about Todd Terje as if it were completely factual. With Sick of Myself and Dream Scenario, though, he’s about to reach a new level of Ari Aster-y fame – Aster is even a producer on Dream Scenario.
Fittingly, Sick of Myself details an artist’s quest for success, with Signe and Thomas attempting to one-up each other’s press coverage. When scrolling through Verge’s website, Signe groans upon learning of an atrocity – not so much for the victims, but because the breaking news pushed her interview further down the homepage. Borgli admits he’s also checked article placements. “But I’ve never called the publication like Signe to ask if they can bump the article.”
With its universal themes, Sick of Myself could easily take place in, say, LA, where DRIB, a Hollywood satire, unfolded. The Norwegian setting, Borgli explains, is because that’s where he first pitched the film. “The government gave me a grant to write the screenplay, so that made the decision for me. Once I knew that, I really committed to the cultural niches I’ve seen in Oslo.” He gives the example of Thomas finding fame via art gallery exhibitions that comprise stolen designer chairs. “Just before the movie came out in Norway, the guys [thieving furniture in Oslo] got caught by the police and it became a media sensation. There was confusion as to whether this court case was a marketing ploy by us.”
However, Borgli believes the themes resonate with the world’s more affluent societies, not just Norway, on an existential level. “I wanted to balance a very modern story with timeless elements, like shooting it on 35mm, with lots of classical music. It’s not about social media, it’s not about apps, it’s not about how the internet is poisoning us. It’s about the timeless desire to be validated, to be seen, and to even have people pity you.”
The comic conceit of Signe poisoning herself to ramp up her victimhood – if the phrase wasn’t already taken, you could call it toxic femininity – is inherently ridiculous. Yet musicians turn heartbreak into melodies, novelists mine trauma for bestsellers, and artists of all mediums have manipulated their imagination via drugs. Signe also exists in an age where creative figures are supposed to possess backstories.
“Signe’s kind of a plain, privileged blonde girl who feels uninteresting because she doesn’t have a trauma to give her authenticity,” Borgli says. “We romanticise struggle in culture and art. We want a dandelion growing through the asphalt. I’ve thought that about myself. Do I have authenticity? Do I have anything interesting to say? I don’t have any childhood trauma. I don’t have any struggles, really. I just love films… Once movies are shot, we want to hear the real events about how painful it was. Authenticity is something we value, maybe, too high[ly].”
The day before our interview, Borgli’s Sight & Sound ballot was published online, featuring dream-related films such as The King of Comedy, Adaptation, and Mulholland Drive. Throughout Sick of Myself, Signe often disappears into reveries, whether it’s imagining herself being interviewed on television, or the aforementioned funeral fantasy to help her climax in bed. With regards to the latter, I tell Borgli that Close director Lukas Dhont politely questioned my maturity when I said I sometimes daydream about people finding out I’m dead. “I think it’s quite normal to go there in your thoughts,” says Borgli. “But Signe’s using it for an even higher purpose.”
‘It’s not about social media, it’s not about apps, it’s not about how the internet is poisoning us. It’s about the timeless desire to be validated, to be seen, and to even have people pity you’ – Kristoffer Borgli
If something odd occurred in his sleep, Borgli used to write a description in a Google Doc; more recently, he’s kept a dream journal by his bed. “It’s something I’ve thought about since I was a teenager working at a video store, watching David Lynch and Charlie Kaufman movies. It felt like the most exciting films took place inside of, or gave you access to, someone’s head. Dream Scenario gave me an opportunity to go into the dream world.”
Shot in late 2022 after Sick of Myself premiered at Cannes, Dream Scenario stars Nicolas Cage as a professor who becomes a celebrity after he mysteriously appears in people’s dreams; co-produced by A24 and Ari Aster’s Square Peg, it also features Michael Cera and Dylan Gelula. Borgli doesn’t wish to discuss it yet – he jokingly offers a bland quote about it being a “dream scenario” – but teases that it’s the closest Cage has come to recreating the “Charlie Kaufman” character from Adaptation.
At one point, Borgli wasn’t sure if he would shoot Dream Scenario or Sick of Myself first. Timing had it that they shot practically back to back, meaning Dream Scenario will no doubt do the festivals later in 2023. Timing also had it that Sick of Myself arrives a year after The Worst Person in the World, another female-led Norwegian comedy from the same production company. Moreover, Sick of Myself has a cameo from Anders Danielson Lie, and Worst Person’s co-writer Eskil Vogt is credited as a script consultant.
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“It’s hard for a Norwegian movie to reach an international audience,” Borgli says. “The Worst Person in the World just happened to be a big hit. If that can open doors for other Norwegian movies, then I see nothing bad with that.” While he acknowledges that comparisons may be reductive, he notes, “If there’s a trickledown effect from audiences who like that movie and then come see this movie, I think they’re going to experience a pretty different film. But whatever gets them to theatres, that’s fine – as long as it’s not violence or torture.”
Sick of Myself is out in UK cinemas on April 21. For more information, click here.
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