Are the people we interact with online our friends? Are social-media influencers actually what they post? Is social-media a self-indulgent wasteland of nonsense with everyone trying to have a unique voice in hopes to get some likes?
None of these are unique questions about the effect of social media but Ingrid Goes West tries to answer them.
The movie mostly works, mostly because Aubrey Plaza is both infuriating to watch but also a sympathetic character. It doesn’t really break new ground (if you’ve seen Black Mirror Season 3, Episode 1 you will notice a lot of similarities). That being said, there is plenty here that makes it worth at least a watch.
The film focuses on Ingrid and her use of Instagram and how she interacts with the people she thinks are her best friends (because they responded to her photo). Endlessly scrolling, constantly liking and always tweaking a single comment so it sounds just right … Ingrid is a satirized picture of the modern social media maven. When she gets a pretty generic response to her comment from a popular Instagram influencer (played by Elizabeth Olsen), she decides to head out to L.A. in hopes of becoming her best friend.
Ingrid goes from social stalking to real life stalking and that’s where the real story takes off.
Olsen plays Taylor, a convincingly vapid Instagram influencer. She doesn’t care about anyone except her self-indulgent posting of pictures that show her perfectly curated life: an artist husband, a beautiful house and organic meals. (One of her stand-out scenes is at an old auto shop while she has the mechanic take a photo. To get the perfect shot, Taylor tells him to get on the ground while at the same time telling Ingrid to look away and not smile.)
Another stand-out of the film is O’Shea Jackson, Jr. who plays Ingrid’s landlord/boyfriend. He’s the only character that is down-to-earth and seems to actually care about others, the counter to Ingrid’s social media obsession.
As stated before, there really isn’t any new ground covered but, with all being said, it’s a pretty fun movie and liked it more than I thought I would. There are plenty of good laugh-out-loud moments and Aubrey Plaza plays a horrible person that you will end up … sort of liking.
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