THE DECISION 

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Before our addiction to algorithms and mass fame made first-world life performative for many of us, Katie's meticulously executed divorce remains a masterclass in “winning” with hyperreality,” NY Mag.

 

Young’s elliptical narrative in this short film, which he wrote and directed, commingles Katie Holmes’ seamless blend of fact and fiction surrounding her split with Tom Cruise with a noir plot, blurring the boundaries of real life and invention. Katie plays Joan Hudson, a superstar performer, and undercover operative. Isolated and distraught in a hotel room, a flash of a matador killing a bull signals the high stakes of her situation. A televised news report provides exposition on the actress. Joan recalls a video message identifying her nemesis and her objective. After the operative imagines an apocalyptic future for the planet, she jets to a showdown with her antagonist. Joan makes the ultimate sacrifice. The man from the video message enters Joan's hotel room, the world may be safe, but he realizes. Joan is not.

 

Arguably, Holmes' enduring cultural significance stems from her pioneering approach to personal mythmaking, manipulating traditional media channels and public perception of her carefully orchestrated self-presentation. The paradigm, leveraging social media and, by extension, traditional media, strategic silences, etc., has become the blueprint for modern celebrities and public figures seeking to control their narratives in an age of omnipresent digital simulated realities.

 

“Le Samouraï," 1967, the neo-noir written and directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, was Young’s inspiration for this work.

 

Soundscape by Spencer Young, which includes “Johnny Remember Me” by John Leyton.