Emotional Labor

Accompanying Metrograph’s run of Peacock, Bernhard Wenger’s bittersweet satire concerning the tribulations of the CEO of a rent-a-friend company, a program about the kind of jobs that you can never properly clock out of. The harried “help” in Ruggles of Red Gap, My Man Godfrey, and Gosford Park; the programmed companions of A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Her… what do they all have in common? Well, they’re all at your beck and call, 24/7, and eager to please—or at least adept at giving the appearance of eagerness, even when stifling a scream behind their smile.