Ingrid Goes West

I wonder at some of the savage reviews this film got on IMDb. It is no candidate for an Oscar but it is a pretty adequate description of the social media scene, has a reasonably ingenious script and is well acted. I describe it as a semi-black comedy because, very appropriately in an environment where nothing es what it appears to be, it is funny but not totally funny, a little tragic but not as much as it could be. Worth spending a while looking at it.

There is a LOT of weird hate in these reviews for very strange things that kinda aren't even aspects of the movie? Nothing about the shots or scenes appears particularly "cheap" or "cringe", despite what some have said - it looks the same as any other current movie. The bad reviews stink of violated expectations and not much else. You were hoping for some more Parks & Rec or something? This just happens to be a really dark movie about mental illness and isn't maybe as quirky and cutesy as a lot of people were hoping. But review the thing for what it is, not what you were expecting it to be based on seeing one actor's face on the cover. The whole thing was actually really believable and wasn't afraid to get dark and uncomfortable in order to actualize. I was ill-at-ease the whole time, too, but, ah, it's about an unpredictable stalker, so it's kinda supposed to make you feel that way. Not perfect by any means, but I quite admire how dark and honest it is.

The main thing is that it's objectively a good movie: the acting is good, the movie looks like it was made for Instagram (obviously, the point), the issues raised here are very relevant nowadays. To sum it up, it is a good movie.

Still, I cannot say I will ever want to watch it again or that I enjoyed it that much in the first place. The reason for that (my incredibly subjective reason) is that there is nothing that revealing. The issues raised in the movie (loneliness, social media addiction, its shallowness, and the users' search for that shallowness and faux perfection) are all "right", they are all serious problems able to ruin lives or at least distort your view of life. However, most of us clearly understand it, and thus the plot was perfectly predictable because it's a mirror of the current situation in the world - how can it not be predictable?

Summing it up, despite all the highs of the movie, to me, it looked like a high schooler's moralistic essay: all the right thoughts, all the right intentions, but far from being as non-conformist or groundbreaking and revealing as the author believes.

An American black comedy drama; A story about a woman craving recognition who becomes obsessed with using social media, which leads to her inserting herself into the life of an unsuspecting influencer. This satirical stalker fantasy strikes a fine balance between topical humour and horror, emboldened by timely social observations. It also has an interesting visual style which is used to good effect. It is well acted and clever in its depiction of neediness and self-obsession but it falls short in its timidity to take on the bigger psychological problem of the character which is evident in the way the film concludes.

So I've just seen this movie and I can say that it is somehow disturbing and I had an unpleasant feeling during the movie. This is an actual issue these days. I think that the final point of the movie was that it's actually all about that one person that loves you (and in this case: saves you). Important movie. Something has to be done because technology is taking over and it's just not worth it.