T. J.’s Reviews > Welfare > Status Update

The idea of a young guy coming from a stable home going on welfare by choice cause he doesn't want to be his dad in a country with a stronger safety net than mine (Canada) and doing so in a hard assed, tough narrator voice sounds about as appealing as a THE SWEET EAST rewatch. Giving it a chance cause I like the writer's diaristric (or flash fiction) Instagram & his contribution to SUICIDE: AN ANTHOLOGY.

Ok little more to it then prev assessment, it's good. Takes the sympathetic but impartial Sean Baker route of showing people in this class being their own worse enemies and blowing circumstances enough that anyone of any politics will have their biases confirmed. All the roommate/landlord stuff is really good.

Like an S. E. Hinton book and a less journalistic/reportage version of Orwell's DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON. I have never been on welfare or this bad off but the succession of failures, feeling like a loser people look down on & having no talents The Market cares about is very relatable. The last job interview scene is horrible and real.