I had not heard of this movie but just saw a preview on Youtube. It might be the only youtube ad I've ever watched the whole thing, and not clicked as soon as the timer said I could skip the ad. It just looks super creepy and fierce and I hope Aubrey Plaza commits some MAYHEM. I hadn't heard of her either before Legion but now I really like her intensity.
shareI went to see this today. It was good, but it's a little dark too. I left the theater feeling a little sad for all the characters. There's a sort of nihilism to the story that tones down funny parts. Some parts reminded me of a John Waters movie. I don't know any of these actors too well. I just saw Elisabeth Olsen in Wind River and I think she's very talented. Aubrey Plaza is a new face for me and she's terrific in this. My favorite character by far is Dan Pinto played by O'Shea Jackson Jr. That actor is so charismatic and I hope he'll be in a lot more movies. There's a flavor to this movie that's hard to digest sometimes. The best way to put it is there isn't a great deal of empathy shown for the main character who is obviously mentally ill. Maybe I've missed the whole point: social media is bad and makes people act like phonies and makes others jealous. 7/10
shareI went to see it last night. It was actually less dark than I expected. I thought someone was going to get killed. I totally agree about Dan Pinto- he was so great! I don't know how realistic it was that he would still want to see Ingrid after she got him beat up and stole his truck and all that, but he had a big heart.
I felt sorry for Taylor's husband. He was exhausted by her social media life and by all that 'positive hyperbole'. When everything is the BEST, then 'good' loses all meaning. Trying to keep up that pretense is exhausting . You could see Ingrid tried to eat that instagram food and she spit it out- sometimes you just want to grub on fries and cheetos with no makeup on.
Also you could see Taylor was trying to use that Asian girl the same way that Ingrid was using Taylor. The asian girl had more followers than Taylor so she threw over Ingrid for this new 'friend' that had greater status.
It's so sad that Ingrid is so disconnected from normal human interactions that she would spend all of her mother's money on all that nonsense. I get it though, in a way. I remember "needing" lots of trendy things to fit in. I feel very lucky that social media was not around when I was a young person. It's a double edged sword for sure. I totally agree with you about Taylor's husband. Poor guy, he didn't know he was marrying pure social ambition. Also, excellent point about Taylor using the Asian girl. I never thought of that while I was watching it. Soon enough Taylor would get thrown under the bus too. What did you think of Taylor's brother?
shareTaylor's brother was a psycho. Maybe psychos are better at spotting other psychos, like a psycho radar? Because he seemed to have Ingrid's number as soon as he met her. And she also knew he was bad news immediately. Maybe because he's somewhat of a con man himself, he could see it in Ingrid. But he was more dangerous, he almost killed Dan Pinto (although he could probably claim self defense since they did kidnap him!)
The brother had met that Asian girl first and didn't know who she was but as soon as Taylor heard the name she knew that girls follower count! She didn't even want to meet her for herself, it was for her followers.
At the end when Ingrid becomes social media famous from her 'real self', that is like the flip side of the coin. Instead of presenting a fake perfection, there are social media 'celebs' who just have drama and rants every day and I often wonder if that is any more real, or if it is also exaggerated for viewers. That could be a good sequel- Ingrid gets famous for being suicidal but then the audience will always want that same level of drama and intensity from her. Living for an audience is exhausting.