‘The Curse’ Review: Emma Stone, Nathan Fielder, and Benny Safdie Join Forces for an Unsettling Triumph from A24

Watching Showtime and A24‘s new series The Curse is like both figuratively and literally watching America through a funhouse mirror. The series uses the reflective exterior of wannabe HGTV star Whitney Siegel’s (Emma Stone) “passive houses” to warp the images caught on screen. Characters passive aggressively arguing will often be split in one shot, with one right in front of us and the other answering back within the frame of a mirror. Unkempt background extras will take over the foreground while a pivotal conversation takes place through a window frame above them. In one episode, it will be the aforementioned Whitney pushing her malleable husband Asher (Nathan Fielder) to overcome his selfish instincts because it doesn’t look good. In the next, Asher will be questioning the limits of Whitney’s morals. What characters say when they think they’re being watched versus when they think they’re off-camera are as starkly different as their horror when they watch mercenary reality TV producer Dougie’s (Benny Safdie) carefully edited playback of their true selves. Through it all, The Curse condemns not just its three craven leads, but an entire society built on the aesthetics of goodness over true kindness.

The Curse is co-creator Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie’s twisted reflection of the American dream. The “genre-bending” series follows newlywed couple Asher and Whitney Siegel as they embark on shooting an HGTV show set in Encinas, New Mexico. Whitney’s dream is to create a green community of homes which have absolutely no carbon footprint on the environment. The irony is that members of the mostly Latinx and Indigenous community have to be displaced in order for these ostentatious houses to be built. From the jump, however, the image-conscious Whitney is determined to help those in need, concocting elaborate schemes to employ, house, and even cover the shoplifting crimes of those her vision has run roughshod through. Whitney’s insecure husband Asher is so devoted to her that he will do just about anything to see her dreams come true. Including the worst things imaginable.

In the first episode of The Curse, Dougie suggests to Asher that they kill time in a parking lot by shooting b-roll of the awkward man doing good. A little girl, Nala (Hikmah Warsame), is struggling to sell cans of soda to passersby. Dougie tells Asher to give Nala cash. The problem is that Asher only has a crisp $100 bill on him. Asher sucks it up and gives Nala the money, only to beg for it back so he can get change when he thinks the cameras have stopped rolling. When the child doesn’t want to give it back, he snatches it from her. “I curse you,” Nala says ominously. And for the next nine episodes, Asher is dogged by the worry that any spate of misfortune he faces is all thanks to Nala’s curse.

Showtime has requested that critics only review the first nine out of ten episodes of The Curse, but even if the finale is full of wild upheavals, it’s clear that Fielder and Safdie have successfully, uncomfortably blended their aesthetics here. Benny Safdie and brother (and Curse co-producer) Josh Safdie have spent years carving a niche making indie films that incorporate untrained actors, tense camera angles, and stressful soundtracks. Safdie not only co-writes and co-directs these features, but often acts in them (and has popped increasingly as a performer in other projects, including this summer’s Oppenheimer). Fielder, on the other hand, is a comic who came to fame with Comedy Central’s Nathan For You. Fielder played a version of himself offering harebrained ideas to struggling businesses which often wound up satirizing the inanity of our culture’s norms. Fielder took his ethos one step forward last summer with HBO’s critically-acclaimed The Rehearsal, in which he staged elaborate “rehearsals” for real life situations. The Curse blends these styles together in a dramatized series that lampoons reality television while also excavating the rot at the heart of the American dream.

Now the “American dream” means something different to every living soul, but it usually covers one of three bases. At its most inspirational, it is the idea that anyone can pull themselves up out of poverty to obscene wealth through hard work and merit. In the past, it was associated with the concept of Manifest Destiny; that white settlers had not just a privilege, but a prerogative to settle the American West. Finally, and most soberly, most Americans today simply dream of owning a modest, but stylish, forever home to call their own. Through the character of Emma Stone’s Whitney, The Curse picks away at all three. Her obsession with gaining acceptance from Indigenous characters borders on a fetish, while her moral crusade is a deft mask concealing her deep desire to lord over a community of her own design.

The Curse is an unsettling triumph, thanks in huge part to the synergy between Fielder, Safdie, and Stone. Nathan Fielder’s performance is fascinating because it’s a version of his established on-screen persona, minus the shadow of self-awareness. Emma Stone corrupts her girl-next-door effervescence, transforming her trademark movie star smile into an unsettling rictus used to get her way. But the most astonishing performance might be from Benny Safdie, whose Dougie turns out to be one of the most darkly tragic characters in the show.

Fans of Fielder’s comic work might struggle to find familiar laughs in The Curse, but the series is a deftly woven tapestry of tension. At its best, The Curse‘s surrealist approach edges close to the creative heights of another Showtime series, Twin Peaks: The Return. At its worst, the social satire feels a bit too on the nose, especially on the heels of an “Eat the Rich” cinematic boom. However, as The Curse continues, Fielder, Safdie, and their collaborators find new ways to expose the refractive nature of morality in contemporary society.

Whitney’s dream of “passive” living is ultimately a fool’s errand, after all. There is no way any of us can live without influencing our environment. The more Whitney and Asher try not to rock the boat, the more surge they add to a tsunami of change poised to wipe all of Encinas away. The Curse argues the American dream is a nightmare.

The Curse premieres Friday, November 10, on streaming and on demand for Paramount+ subscribers with the Paramount+ with SHOWTIME plan, before making its on-air debut on SHOWTIME on Sunday, November 12, at 10 p.m. ET/PT.