Life is a rehearsal

Currently, among the new releases on these platforms, a film, a series, and an entire audiovisual subgenre all emphasize the same idea: our days are a succession of rehearsals, exams, and evaluations; and our lives depend on it.

The subgenre is located within another: many prison dramas have specialized in the story, inspired by real events, of how a group of inmates put on a play. While the film The Lives of Sing Sing enters a maximum-security American prison and recreates the experience with actors who have experienced incarceration firsthand, the Swedish series The Last Act (Movistar+) reconstructs another true story, that of prestigious director Lars Nóren with three neo-Nazi inmates. Although the ultimate goal is always the final performance, with an audience, the weight falls on the strength of the rehearsals. Seriously preparing yourself to be someone else, doing radical gymnastics with your empathy and sympathy: only then is a redemption possible, which is never guaranteed.

These Kafkaesque essays are a new mirror: we prepare all our lives for what never comes.

The Rehearsals (HBO) is precisely the title of the series that takes the device that regulates trial and error, preparation for the exam or the premiere, the furthest. If in the first season, the post-humor genius Nathan Fielder devised a method to simulate complex emotional situations in almost real-life scenarios, such as reconciling with a partner or becoming a parent, to be better prepared when the time comes for that decisive date or actually caring for a child (or not); in the second season, he goes even further, replacing the emotional problems of ordinary mortals with those of communication between pilots and co-pilots, responsible for a large number of air disasters. By building a replica of a Houston airport terminal, he undertakes a new meta-essay exercise. Because he artistically rehearses the act of rehearsing. In this case, about the importance of simulation, even if it can be deeply comical, to avoid tragedy.

Fleur Fortune's film The Assessment (Prime Video), beautifully shot between Germany and the Canary Islands, transfers the protocols of social role-playing to a dystopian future. And takes them to the extreme.

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In a world ravaged by global warming, survivors have created their own atmospheres, exterminated pets to avoid epidemics, and procreate minimally, using artificial wombs. Only the best citizens can access parenthood. And to achieve this, they are evaluated for a week. An ambiguous civil servant subjects the protagonist couple to an extreme test. As an adult, she invades every inch of their privacy; but at times, she also behaves like a difficult little girl to study their reactions. These Kafkaesque essays are a new mirror: we spend our lives preparing for what never comes.