Do you think some of the negative criticism is coming from an expectation that the film be more representative of a particular group? Like ‘incels’, or the ‘alt-right’?
You mean like from liberals, or the press? Yeah, I think they wanted me to say that it was about guys that were gonna shoot people, or that they were racist, or that they were incels. And what I was trying to say is, ‘All of that shit is related to the same thing. It’s not just about the alt-right. It’s not just about incels. It’s not just about shooters. It’s about this thing that’s the underlying current of all that other stuff.’ That’s what people can’t wrap their heads around, and maybe that’s my failure, but I certainly tried to hit that home as often as I could. It’s a movie about isolation in the internet age among young men. When young men don’t have support systems, they’re more prone to engage in self-destructive behaviors, destructive behaviors. But the silver lining of that is there’s a really rich creative community that’s blossomed out of that camaraderie. It’s not all just fucking terrible, you know?