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‘Disclaimer’ Warns Us Not to Believe Everything We Read
Filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron’s latest drama is a disturbing psychological horror tale of human gullibility and the dangers of storytelling
Every time we sit down to watch a fictional film or TV program or read a novel, we need reminding that the authors are not only manipulating their characters in pursuit of their visions — they’re chiefly manipulating us, as Disclaimer (a new mini-series now streaming on Apple Plus) illustrates in intense, disturbing fashion.
A story is always a kind of a lie told mostly for entertainment’s sake. While most narrative works matter not at all in the larger sense, on occasion, one sneaks through the noise and gains the power to distort and manipulate our reality to dark ends, as happens in this agonizing, cruel, and unique act of manipulation through storytelling.
Adapted by Alfonso Cuaron from a novel by Renee Wright, Disclaimer weaves together three story lines over seven episodes. We begin twenty years ago: Jonathan Brigstocke (Louis Partridge) and his girlfriend Sasha (Liv Hill) are travelling by train on a lust-drenched tour of Italy, making wild love in washes of soft nostalgic color. They seem innocent, carefree, and thoroughly in lust, if not love. In between their fierce…
