Dark and witty, Ingrid Goes West is worth seeking out

FUNNY and satirical, this excellent movie about our social media obsession reveals some uncomfortable truths about ourselves.

WHEN the end credits start rolling and the lights come on, resist the temptation to reach for your phone, even if it’s just to check the time.

Because if there’s one thing you should take away from Ingrid Goes West, a sharp dramedy about today’s social media culture, it’s that life happens in front of you and not on a 5-inch screen.

A satirical portrait of obsession and artifice, Ingrid Goes West is a splendid first feature from director Matt Spicer, who co-wrote the screenplay with David Branson Smith. Aubrey Plaza’s (Parks and Recreation), involvement — she has a producer credit on this — and her dragooning of Elizabeth Olsen and O’Shea Jackson into the project is what got Ingrid Goes West made.

The film is fresh, disturbing and Single White Female for the Instagram generation.

Ingrid Goes West opens with a question, a chirpy voiceover asking “Is this real?”

The questioner isn’t really interested in some philosophical musing about reality, it’s merely a hashtag-humblebrag accompanied by a perfectly filtered Instagram shot of the kind of happiness that only exists on social media.

The person staring at this concoction of faux-ality is Ingrid (Plaza), a lonely and volatile young woman with straggly hair pasted to her despairing face. Ingrid lives her life through other people’s social feeds, a constant hum of double-taps, liking posts in every waking moment, brushing her teeth with one hand, phone in the other.

So deep.

She chances upon a magazine article — the irony of print media in this instance is not commented on — about social media maven Taylor Sloane (Olsen), whose thoroughly curated Californian life on Instagram stirs Ingrid’s obsessive nature.

When Taylor responds to Ingrid’s comment under a post about, of all things, avocado toast, Ingrid is inspired to take her inheritance money and decamp to the sunny climes of LA.

Through a clever deception, Ingrid inserts herself into Taylor’s life, quickly becoming the effusive “photographer’s” sidekick. Taylor’s whole existence is a series of composed, Instagram-ready vignettes. That it’s all affectation hasn’t escaped the notice of her “pop artist” husband Ezra (Wyatt Russell).

The only genuine person in town seems to be Dan Pinto (Jackson), a Batman-loving wannabe-screenwriter and Ingrid’s landlord/admirer.

Dan’s preoccupation with the Dark Knight is used as a contrast between a “healthy obsession”, though the kind that usually invites mockery, and the compulsion to mimic someone’s else’s seemingly perfect life. Keeping up with the Joneses is all the more nauseating in 2017.

Put it down, put your phone down.

Plaza, who is best known for her deadpan, nonchalant comedic style, has already proven her dramatic mettle with a kinetic turn in TV series Legion.

Here, she’s gone even harder, sensationally selling the peculiar mix of Ingrid’s intensity and vacantness without pushing into melodrama. Plaza as Ingrid making a song as innocuous as K-Ci & JoJo’s “All My Life” feel deeply sinister is not something you’ll forget in a hurry.

Ingrid Goes West is a chilling indictment of our image-driven culture, a withering dissection of artificiality versus authenticity. It also damns our need for validation through online acknowledgment from random people, not to mention everyone’s own voyeuristic digital behaviour — ask yourself, is stalking your high school crush that innocent, really?

It’s surprising that this film has come from first time filmmakers because there is a confidence and balance that usually comes with the second or third effort — no wonder it make such a splash at Sundance and South by Southwest earlier this year.

Ingrid Goes West is only out in limited release in Australia but it’s worth seeking out because this penetrating and darkly witty movie deserves to be seen.

Rating: 4/5

Ingrid Goes West is in cinemas now.

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