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Mainstream
USA 2020
produced by Fred Berger, Lauren Bratman, Gia Coppola, Francisco Rebelo de Andrade, Andrew Garfield, Jack Heller, Siena Oberman, Enrico Saraiva, Alan Terpins, Zac Weinstein, Amy Jarvela (executive), Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (executive), Michael Musante (executive), André Novis (executive), Greta Seacat (executive), Tom Stuart (executive), Scott Veltri (executive) for American Zoetrope, Artemis, Assemble Media, Automatik Entertainment, Dynasty Pictures, Paint Night Productions, TUGAWOOD Pictures
directed by Gia Coppola
starring Andrew Garfield, Maya Hawke, Nat Wolff, Jason Schwartzman, Johnny Knoxville, Alexa Demie, Kalena Yiaueki, Jacqui Getty, Nick Darmstaedter, Colleen Camp, Marshall Bell, Pascale Coppola, Jordan L. Jones, Jefery Levy, Juanpa Zurita, Adam Barnhardt, Trevor White, Casey Frey, Kelemete Misipeka, Charles Melton, Gio Padilla, Chang Chris, Desmond Napoles, Nathalie Love, Jake Paul, Patrick Starr, Rola, Jan Jeffcoat, Alyson Van, Charissa Kroeger, Tina Jackson, Noelle Rodriguez
story by Gia Coppola, screenplay by Gia Coppola, Tom Stuart, music by Devonté Hynes
review by Mike Haberfelner
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When Frankie (Maya Hawke) first meets Link (Andrew Garfield), they're
both nobodies, he's offering passers-by free cheese dressed up in a mouse
costume, and she's a barmaid with dreams to one day become a successful
YouTube filmmaker. She's immediately taken by his energy though, puts a
video of his on YouTube, and within hours gets thousands of hits - to
which he's ignorant because he doesn't do social media and doesn't even
have a cellphone. However, she manages to track him down again, and a
chemistry between the two of them develops almost immediately. She tries
to persuade him to star in more of her videos, he tries to persuade her to
quit her job - and both succeed ... and suddenly Frankie comes to the
realization that she has to make this work as because out of a job running
out of funds is only a matter of time. So she persuades her colleague from
the bar, Jake (Nat Wolff), a gifted writer, to write material for them,
material that really speaks to the audience and that also furthers Link's
central message to get people off their cellphones and back into real
life. Soon, their show attracts the attention of an agent, Mark (Jason
Schwartzman), who organizes for them to have an internet gameshow, called Your
Phone or Your Dignity, where Link, going by NoOne Special now,
collects the cellphones of his contestants and asks them to either
humiliate themselves on the show to get their respective phones back, or
destroy them in front of the camera. The show's a smash hit at first, but
the formula grows stale before long, so Link brings it up a notch to keep
the audiences happy and shows a picture of his beautiful contestant
Isabelle (Alexa Demie) with a very prominent birthmark in her face that
she usually hides under makeup, and he pretty much forces her to post this
on Instagram. Isabelle is devastated, but Frankie edits the show in a way
that it feels like an act of empowerment of somebody showing her real
self. Jake quits the show though, but Frankie, who of course has long
fallen in love with Link, sticks with him. However, when Link later is
interviewed on super-influencer Ted Wick's (Johnny Knoxville) show and
unedited footage of the show is shown, the tables are pretty much turned
on Link. And yet, he gets a big YouTube live special - on the very day
that news breaks Isabelle has committed suicide ... This movie
seems to really click all the boxes for a quirky indie comedy: There are
eccentric characters, media satire, quirky romance, obscure guest stars
playing themselves, some YouTube-inspired and -compatible animation, campy
bits, some thriller elements thrown in (that are never explored), and an
uplifting ending that hammers home the message - and the result is ...
just nice, nothing more. Basically the film tries to be edgy but is
nowhere near edgy enough, as whatever originality or shock value Link's
show is supposed to have has long been staple both of social and
established media, and while Andrew Garfield sure is charming and has
charisma, his turn as a game show host is weirdly reminiscent of fellow
media satire Max
Headroom - which beats this movie by some 35 years and still
proves to be the much sharper satire. Meanwhile, the romance subplot
really just follows the tried-and-true formula, really as if
"indie" was a genre rather than a chance to shake off
restraints. But I guess this sounds too negative, and this film really
isn't that bad, it just really fails to captivate one.
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