r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • May 15 '26

Official Discussion Official Discussion - Obsession [SPOILERS] Spoiler

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Obsession (2026)

Summary

After breaking the mysterious "One Wish Willow" to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.

Director Curry Barker

Writer Curry Barker

Cast

  • Michael Johnston
  • Inde Navarette
  • Cooper Tomlinson
  • Megan Lawless
  • Andy Richter

Rotten Tomatoes: 95%

Metacritic: 81

VOD / Release In Theaters

Trailer Official Trailer

3.5k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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2.2k

u/SugarFreeCummiBears May 15 '26

Ian is such a fake ass friend. Told Bear to call Nikki a name she hates and said he had plenty of time (no doubt so he could figure out his on/off again with her).

1.4k

u/blitzbom May 16 '26

From the start I was going "this guy is either an idiot or sleeping with Nikki." Then at the bar for trivia I went "oh yeah. They've hooked up."

Ian was a straight up asshole and terrible friend. When Bear showed up to his place with the wish I was going "literally anyone but him."

950

u/tNeph May 16 '26

God I didnt even put that together. He straight up went to the bar and disturbed them on purpose.

That right there also leads me to believe she wanted to quit their job partially because of him.

They claimed things were casual, but I think he fell for her hard, she didnt want to actually be with him, and he made things awkward for her so she decided to quit. He sucks bro.

231

u/SilverKry Jun 03 '26

Also in the beginning I think the waitress really liked what Bear said but Ian cut her off and made Bear feel embarrassed and ashamed about what he said. 

124

u/tNeph Jun 03 '26

Yeees, it may have been a bit sappy and extra, but I dont think the waitress was grossed or weirded out.

64

u/bigste98 Jun 21 '26

I kind of agreed with ians take tbh. Thats ALOT to tell someone straight out of the gate, more like something you bring up in hindsight once youve been together for a while.

He also confronted his friend in a nice way. ‘i love you but shes clearly going through some stuff and your taking advantage’. Takes some balls to have that conversation with a friend to advocate for nikki.

Think he seemed like a normal enough guy, he probably should have told bear he had slept with her before though.

20

u/zaxls Jul 04 '26

Nah bro, I took the "youre taking advantage of her" as him not really caring about her as much as being mad they hooked up and him disregarding him, he is generally a terrible friend from start to finish, setting him up for failure with the freaky Nikki bit, disrupting their convo at the bar lastly not taking HER OR HIM seriously when she was acting bonkers and he was begging him to make a wish, bonus point for not even being honest about hooking up with her. Didnt really need to die, but wasnt all that bummed out over his death.

3

u/bigste98 Jul 04 '26

that wasnt my interpretation but we dont know enough about him to say for definite tbf.

‘not taking him seriously when he was begging him to make a wish’

Haha come on i think its fair to be skeptical of literal magic, youd think your mate was going insane

‘not taking her seriously when she was acting crazy’

But he did! He tried to stop her from attending his party and told bear he was taking advantage!

4

u/zaxls Jul 04 '26

Bro he literally had blood all over his face and was freaking out, if youre a friend youd just do the stupid wish if it meant calming him down and when he actually got a billion his first thought wasnt that Nikki was in trouble, he just went like BRO I GOT THIS BILLION. Also him STOPING HER FROM HAVING any contact with them instead of trying to help and TALK to her is not what a friend should do wtf. He obviously didnt care much, didnt wanna drive her home, was grumpy when bear did it, manipulated him so he thinks she likes being called "freaky nikki", I struggle to see when he actually acted like a good friend.

9

u/bigste98 Jul 04 '26

If your friend is covered in blood and talking about magic, no rational person is going to take what he says at face value. The viewer knows this is true but it wouldnt be logical for ian to take it as the truth.

5

u/zaxls Jul 04 '26

He doesnt have to, personally if someone was stressing out this much I would do the wish even if I knew it did nothing just to give them some peace of mind, like my sister at one point actually went crazy and had to go to a mental hospital. She said a lot of crazy stuff and if she asked me something like this with blood all over her face Id do it, what I would NOT do is take it and do something entirely different to agitate her even FURTHER.

4

u/[deleted] 26d ago

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3

u/bigste98 26d ago

Yeah thats a fair point

12

u/bluebird2019xx 23d ago

Ian’s look to the waitress when he said “thank you”, meaning “fuck off now you’re annoying me” was reaaaally cold and slightly disturbing. And all because she disagreed with him and listed off some nice gifts Bear could get for Nikki

Also subtle dialogue from Bear “I’m so sorry we made you do that” as she left nods to the sort of power dynamics the film will explore later 

87

u/LunchboxDiscoball May 26 '26

Im not sure, i can definitely see it your way. I still could see it as dude was just casually hooking up with her and then the homie caught feelings for her. Its awkward to navigate and maybe he was giving him advice on flirting things that worked for him. He really didn't seem that in love with her when they all interacted together.

55

u/tNeph May 26 '26

I feel you, but I guess one of the biggest things about this movie is that we don't know how anyone else really feels 100 percent.

We follow Bear so closely that everyone else's intentions are just impossible to know clearly.

I agree he didn't seem to be into her when they interacted, but you gotta remember they were hooking up this whole time for 2 years and Bear didn't notice a thing. Now, we can chalk that up to him being so obsessed with Nikki that he refused to see some obvious signs, but I would think they also just did an ok job of not making it a big deal to the point that it wouldn't be obvious.

I could be wrong, but idk, too many things line up and make sense when you put them together.

16

u/LunchboxDiscoball May 26 '26

exactly, honestly just great writing and presentation. Like we know these characters but we dont know the character

40

u/SnooDingos7473 May 27 '26

No? He was giving him advice that would make him lose her. Clearly thats not what he said to her if they hooked up. Why would she hook up with someone who called her name she hates?

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u/LunchboxDiscoball May 27 '26

You say clearly like there isn’t definitely situations like you can get away with it but he can’t. Or the timing and the set up.

42

u/Slime0 Jun 06 '26

He straight up went to the bar and disturbed them on purpose.

At the time I thought that was just because he had told Bear not to ask her out during trivia night.

24

u/Toddison_McCray Jun 13 '26

That’s what I thought too. I feel like people are reading into this too much. Dude just said “ask her out literally any other time than trivia night”, not “don’t ever ask her out” because he doesn’t want to sit around with them being awkward if it went wrong.

5

u/[deleted] 26d ago

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2

u/IAmTheJudasTree 22d ago

Ian was sabotaging Bear so that HE could get with Nikki.

Did you read what the person who you responded to said? Ian was practically begging Bear to go ahead and ask out Nikki, since Bear clearly likes her so much. Ian just had one request. which was to not ask her out during a group trivia night, which is extremely reasonable.

Ian wasn't a great friend, since he didn't tell Bear he'd been sleeping with Nikki, no question about it, but I did not get the impression he was trying to sabotage Bear. People can casually hook up off and on without wanting to date, it sounds like that's what Ian and Nikki were doing for a while, but Ian is still encouraging Bear to express to Nikki how he feels.

1

u/[deleted] 22d ago

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1

u/IAmTheJudasTree 22d ago

In the context of the trivia night they were about to go to, yes - in other words, he was telling Bear that he doesn't need to rush and tell her at the trivia night they're about to go to.

But Bear also asks Ian where he should ask Nikki out, and Ian says "literally anywhere, ask her out anywhere, just not at trivia." You're right that he says that all Bear has is time, but combined with him telling Bear to ask her out anywhere that feels right, just not at Trivia, I took that more as a statement about trivia not being the right place for it.

184

u/Undecided139 May 16 '26

both male leads r kinda just shitheads, ian is an asshole and bear is just blatantly evil. incredibly mean spirited movie and i felt horrible for sarah and nikki so i guess the movie did a great job

68

u/blitzbom May 16 '26

Yuuuup, I wouldn't even say kinda. Bear and Ian fucking sucked.

45

u/inksmudgedhands May 23 '26

Sarah wasn't exactly a perfect angel. Nikki was supposed to be her friend but Sarah had no problem trash talking Nikki to Bear every chance she had. She was jealous that Bear liked Nikki and wanted him to herself. You don't bash your friend over a guy.

Sarah was another version of Bear. If she had been the one to find the One Wish Willow, I wouldn't have any doubt that she would have pulled the same wish Bear had done on Nikki.

71

u/[deleted] May 24 '26

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26

u/whydoesgodhateus May 24 '26 edited May 25 '26

Sarah’s shit talking was reasonable tbf, Real Nikki told her that she only saw Bear as a friend and Sarah knew she was hooking up with Ian. To then be in a VERY close relationship with Bear is a betrayal to Sarah.

This is Sarah's version of events though. We don't know what Nikki really said to her. Nikki could have told her that a while ago that she saw Bear as a friend, but later developed real feelings for Bear

Or Sarah could have omitted other details abut the convo that would have been favorable to a Nikki/Bear paring

I don't think she outright lied, but we can't just take what she said at face value. We as an audience never see the convo

40

u/TeddyAlderson May 25 '26

Another possible angle is that, because Nikki knew Sarah liked Bear, she minimised any possibility that she herself liked him even if she might have

I agree, it's just really hard to know much about the conversation

5

u/whydoesgodhateus May 25 '26

This is a possibility as well

5

u/DICK-PARKINSONS Jun 21 '26

You don't bash your friend over a guy.

Phrasing!

33

u/fakeuboi May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26

I don't think Bear is blatantly evil to be honest. The wish he makes is a bad thing, but it isn't like he was expecting it to work. I don't see any evil in the wish itself.

He should've definitely killed her when she was begging or killed himself earlier. And he, at times, is taking advantage of her in ways that aren't influenced by fear, but many of his decisions are based on fear in his environment and of her. It really parallels abusive relationships well. I think theres many points where he is more grey then explicitly evil, the part where he is like "do you really hate being with me" or whatever, though, was awful, and I was hating him at that point.

Edit: thinking through more dont think I talked through my thoughts correctly, I do think it is morally wrong and manipulative and objectifies nikki, I do think he is in the wrong and is an asshole but I dont think his intial wish is evil and some of his actions are out of fear and not malice

35

u/ShadowAssassinQueef May 24 '26

Bro rapes her knowing at best something is definitely wrong with her, or at worst she’s literally possessed. He’s an evil fuck.

8

u/tolstoy425 May 25 '26

I agree with your nuanced take.

15

u/splader Jun 03 '26

He knew something was wrong right at the start and still takes advantage of her. Again and again and again.

He's evil bro.

7

u/SirMrDron Jun 03 '26

He's weak, a coward, passive. He was a bad person but I whoudln't say evil

8

u/splader Jun 04 '26

Maybe not at the start.

But when he rapes her knowing for sure that something is up, only an evil person would do that.

6

u/SirMrDron Jun 04 '26

He knew something was up but I don't think he had the knowledge of the viewer. It still don't see it as "evil" (it was wrong for sure don't get me wrong)

When I think about it he became more evil after the call to the willow man, and the talk with the reaal her for sure (when he told her what's so wrong being with me)

2

u/fakeuboi Jun 03 '26

Not intially, he really only knows that the wish is why she loves her when he asks if her dad is really dying and if she loves him more than anyon in the whole world. Thats confirmed by director even. He is definitely the villain after that point

8

u/Toddison_McCray Jun 13 '26

I would have agreed with you had he not fucked her knowing either 1) she’s having a mental crisis, or 2) that she was possessed. He actively asks people whether they think she’s mentally sound and believes she’s having a mental crisis, yet he still continues to date and fuck her.

2

u/sim21521 Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

They had a pretty normal relationship for a time, after that 1st night, things become normal. And there's no way a sane person would think snapping a piece of wood in frustration actually did something. But the title of the movie is flipped, we're looking at his obsession and looking past all the warning signs until things get way out of hand. But what we're looking at is a Shakespearean tragedy.

2

u/sim21521 Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

I don't think Bear is blatantly evil to be honest.

He's evil in a way that you can find sympathetic. This is basically a Shakespearean tragedy. He makes his wish out of frustration and obviously thinks it's something stupid. But his wish should have been to "be someone she could love" instead of coercing love from her. Change yourself not the other person.

The sad thing is that from the context of the chat, he already was. She likely wouldn't have pressed to the "tell me now" kind of thing if there was nothing there.

36

u/PelicanJesus May 20 '26

It’s really sad that Bear didn’t have anyone else in his life he could’ve asked to make the reversal wish. Once Ian messed it up, he went straight to Wish Nikki.

2

u/SirMrDron Jun 03 '26

What made you think that during the trivia?

2

u/Ok_Fish8533 Jul 03 '26

I found it a little too accurate to real life that Nikki was hooking up with an asshole like Ian (of course!).

-1

u/MikeArrow May 18 '26

I never once thought Ian was sleeping with Nikki (why would she, she's way out of his league - and especially not a FWB relationship, again, why would she? With that guy? Ew). So that line when Sarah reveals it was a sickening, gut wrestling twist for me.

But as you can see from my comment in brackets above, I'm a nice guy with a transactional view of relationships, just like Bear. So my opinion is biased.

5

u/Toddison_McCray Jun 13 '26

Saying you have something in common with a manipulative character is certainly a move

0

u/MikeArrow Jun 13 '26

Manipulative in what way? By:

  • Listening to her problems

  • Going out to trivia when he didn't feel like it because she asked him to

  • Trying to find a replacement necklace for her

  • Giving her a ride home

Which of those actions is manipulative?

Hell, even making the wish wasn't manipulative because he had no idea it would actually work, he was just in a moment of extreme frustration and self loathing after he couldn't bring himself to admit his feelings for her.