Critic Reviews

This claustrophobic masterpiece will leave you wondering – and reeling.

Easily the best comedy special of the pandemic, if not the best “content” of any kind from the pandemic that you’ll see, putting everything we’ve felt over the past year and a half, and still feel, as each of us figure out what comes next.

It is an incredible accomplishment, a testament to Burnham’s genius at directing, writing, songwriting, performance. There are a few overwhelming moments of empathy and warmth, too. ... But it is also mesmerizing throughout, catchy and astonishing and captivating and self-absorbed and desperately thinking of everyone else, all at once.

Virtuosic. ... It feels as if he has created something entirely new and unlikely, both sweepingly cinematic and claustrophobically intimate, a Zeitgeist-chasing musical comedy made alone to an audience of no one. It’s a feat, the work of a gifted experimentalist whose craft has caught up to his talent.

A brilliant, maddening, and transformative piece of art-meets-comedy-meets-commentary.

Captures, with a frenzied and dextrous clarity, the unmoored, wired, euphoric, listless feeling of being very online during the pandemic. .... “Inside” is a virtuosic one-man musical extravaganza, and also an experimental film about cracking up via Wi-Fi connection while trying to make said one-man musical extravaganza—although, in the mediated age, when genres are twisted and mashed together, characterizing it feels almost beyond the point.

The result is an impressive one-man technical feat loaded with surreal twists and dense commentary under the veneer of sophomoric gags. ... However, whether or not you embrace the weird tonal shifts and abrupt transitions between vignettes, the experience is a constant audiovisual thrill.

He plays with forms and genres as if mixing colors. It's often that if you're not laughing, you're still impressed, if not inspired. This feels like Burnham achieving his ultimate form, as a parodist who proves again and again to be exceptionally original and wise. ... A bit more transparency on the creative process, and what happens over the isolated project's timeframe, would help it resonate as an artistic statement.

The results are extraordinary. ... Despite its many levels of jokes and meta-jokes, Inside is one of the most sincere artistic responses to the 21st century so far: a beautiful, intricate chambered nautilus shell filled with loathing.