Ingrid Goes West comes close to saying something sharp about how social media promotes envy and the illusion of connectivity, but when a comedy chooses such an obvious target, it should have the courtesy to aim from an oblique angle.
Matt Spicer's debut feature introduces Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza) as an obsessive, dangerous app addict who crashes a wedding and pepper sprays the bride, ostensibly for not inviting her. It turns out the bride wasn't a friend, but merely encouraged Ingrid by commenting on one of her posts.
Ingrid Goes West
78 Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olsen, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Billy Magnussen
Director: Matt Spicer
Rating: R for stalking, drugs and Batman role-play sex
Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes
Ingrid's next fixation is Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen), a social media gadfly. To get close to her, Ingrid moves to Los Angeles, visits a restaurant that Taylor has praised (repeating her order) and abducts Taylor's dog as a pretext for returning it. As the two become besties, the movie makes the not-revelatory point that Taylor's stage-managed life -- including her dream of opening a boutique ("my Instagram, but in real life") -- is barely less fraudulent than Ingrid's.
Plaza is a whiz with timing and does a deft job of shifting viewers' sympathy. Her character can be loathsome or pathetic depending on the scene. O'Shea Jackson Jr., as her Batman-obsessed landlord, is every bit as funny and nearly walks away with the movie. Still, Spicer cops out by going with the obvious ending. Admittedly, he has tough competition. Real life already gave social media "influencers" a far more cutting sendup. It was called Fyre Fest.
MovieStyle on 08/25/2017